It Started Out As A Feeling
by Dream.Weaver.Stories
Summary: This is a Caspian/OC and Peter/OC story. MARY-SUE WARNING! The Pevensies always told tales of Narnia. What harm could possibly come from wishing fairy tales were true. Well... Danielle was about to find out.
1. The Parting

**Hi! Ok this is my first fan fiction attempt, so please excuse me if it really bad. I am absolutely addicted to the Prince Caspian film, hence the reason I am writing this. I am sort of following the movie, but I am also making up the speech as I go along. So I just wanted to see what people thought of my ideas… so enjoy and please R&R!!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own anything in the Chronicles of Narnia (if I did I would definitely not be writing fan fiction). I only own Danielle!**

Chapter 1: The Parting

Danielle frowned. She allowed her shoulder length brown hair to fall across her face, covering her green eyes. She would soon have to leave for boarding school. Half of her family was being split up between the boys' school and the girls' school.

Well she said family… they weren't actually related… she was an orphan you see and then a couple of years ago she met a very strange boy while she was wandering on the streets… no one would notice she was missing. This was Edmund and since then they had become inseparable. The best of friends. Then she met the rest of his family and for the first time in her life since her parents had died, she felt accepted. They were her only family and they regarded her as such. During the summer she was always welcome at the Pevensie household. To the point where, she had not been back to the orphanage for a while, unfortunately she had had to part from her new family last year during the Blitz where they had been moved to a different part of the country.

They had returned with the most amazing stories, of course they had told her about Narnia and at first she just thought it was a childish story that Lucy was telling her but she then looked at Peter, Susan and Ed and saw the truth in their eyes. Well she was extremely disappointed that she had not been there with them to share their amazing adventure. Danielle had fallen in love with Narnia and this was just from the stories that she had been told by her four closest friends. She promised herself that one day she would have to find a way to Narnia and explore the magical land for herself.

The separation between the five of them was going to be hard, especially for Danielle as she was extremely close to the boys. They were her two best friends and she told them everything. Well, she had become a bit more than a friend to Pete over this last summer. She was now his girlfriend although they did not want to advertise this to everyone as Danielle was a certain number of years younger than Pete was. She was Ed's age and some people felt that this age difference was inappropriate, but they really didn't care. However, Danielle had always been brought up by her family to be lady-like. She didn't want to think about the fact that she was now going to be separated from him until the Christmas holidays.

She loved Lucy and Susan and was still very close to them, but just not in the same way that she was close to Pete and Ed. However, at school she would be fine talking to Susan but she would rejoice when she was reunited with Pete and Ed.

All of a sudden, a small person went hurtling into her side, attracting the attention of Susan as well who was stood talking to a boy nearby. She grabbed the small person by the shoulders and pulled the person back and was surprised to find that it was a rather flustered looking Lucy.

'Quick!! Come with me!! Peter's fighting again!!' she said at a top speed, dragging me along to the station by the hand. Susan followed behind us.

As we entered the station we found our path blocked by a crowd all looking at the fight and shouting. We pushed our way to the front, just in time to see an angry looking Ed storm past to help his brother, who was currently being ganged up on by a number of large looking guys.

'Ed!' Danielle groaned as she watched the boy get hit by one of the others.

'Oh no!!' Su groaned in anticipation of what she knew would happen; Danielle stepped forward to stop the fight. Danielle hated to see people hurt and so would go to any lengths to stop any violence, even at the risk of getting herself hurt.

She stepped right in front of the large boy who was about to hit Ed again. He froze mid-swing when he saw her step in front of him. He seemed to be very indecisive about whether he felt right about hitting a girl or not.

'Move out the way or I'll hit you instead' he grumbled stupidly.

Danielle remained silent and stayed where she was. She knew that her Mother would definitely not have approved of what she was doing, however her Father had always taught her to stand up for what she believed in. This didn't stop Danielle from cringing at the fact that she was most likely going to be punched in a few seconds.

He swung a punch at her and she ducked, not a very good idea as his punch only narrowly missed Ed who was stood behind her. However, she couldn't help this, it was a natural reflex. Something she had learned when her Father had taught her fencing, that was before _it _had happened and he was gone forever. She had never really understood why her Father had taught her fencing. None of the other girls in her school had ever so much as thought about fencing. Her parents had always stressed the fact that she was supposed to be lady-like and never do anything that would stand out in the slightest. She had never really thought about it before but fencing had never really come under the category of lady-like.

'Danny, get out of here you'll only end up getting yourself hurt!' Ed shouted. This distracted Danielle enough that she turned to Ed with an open mouth, about to make a retort, something along the lines of that he was welcome that she had just saved him from another beating. This was when the bully decided to take advantage of the situation and swing a punch at her, which landed right on her cheek, causing her to fly to the floor. Ed then dived at him, punching him with more determination now. That was when several soldier type people came over and broke up the fight. One of them helped me up off the floor, commenting on how my cheek looked as if it was going to bruise and that it was not lady-like that I should have gotten so near the fight. She didn't reply as she didn't feel the need to explain herself and get herself into more trouble for answering back so she quickly escaped the soldier and walked back over to the Pevensie's.

'I had it sorted!' retorted Pete to Ed, Danielle had missed the rest of what had been said while the soldier was picking her up off of the floor. Ed rolled his eyes and stormed off to sit on the luggage by the side of the station.

Pete crossed over to her and ran one hand along her cheek, making her flinch when he crossed over the bruise. Pete then spouted some rubbish about how she should not have stepped in, which Danielle promptly ignored. He snaked his arms around her waist and then looked into her eyes with a genuinely curious look.

'You know Ed better than anyone. What is his problem?' Pete said as he glanced over at Ed who was currently mumbling under his breath.

'Well, he came over to help you and all the thanks he gets is just you blowing him off, saying that you didn't need his help.' Danielle said softly, rather surprised at the fact that he hadn't known this already. He looked down at his feet ashamed and she lifted up his chin so that he would look her in the eyes. 'He'll calm down in a bit; I'd just give him a bit of time.' With this statement she kissed him sweetly once on the lips and went to sit down next to Ed on the luggage. 'He doesn't mean to be pompous and annoying you know'. This comment made Ed smile and they fell into a light conversation, trying to forget that this would be the last time that they would speak together for a while.

'I don't want to go to boarding school. Why can't we just go back to Narnia?' complained Lu.

'It's been a year Lu, I think we need to give up on the idea that we are going back' Pete said, rather unkindly. He was still a bit sour that he had almost lost the fight, but he'd come round eventually.

'OW!! Susan!!' screamed Lucy, causing people stood on the station to glance over at the commotion. Soon after that Ed shouted that Peter had poked him. Even Danielle felt as if someone was poking her repeatedly in the side.

'It's magic!! I can feel it!' Ed shouted.

'Everyone hold hands!' Pete shouted. Danny suddenly realised that this very likely had something to do with Narnia. She wanted to see it so badly but she suddenly realised that they would be kings and queens there and she would just be an outsider. She felt like an intruder and she was suddenly unsure of whether she would be welcome to join the Pevensie's in Narnia. However, this decision was taken out of her hands as Ed firmly gripped her hand in his and raised one eyebrow at her, clearly indicating that he knew exactly what was going on in her head and he would not let her miss out on this adventure.

There was a harsh wind that blew through the station, tearing posters from the walls and tiles from the ceiling. Yet, everyone else on the platform seemed oblivious to the destruction occurring all around them. A light suddenly appeared at the end of the train tunnel and suddenly the five children found themselves standing on a beautiful beach.

Immediately Lu and Susan ran off chasing each other into the sea. Danielle just stood there, gob-smacked, taking in the beautiful surroundings. Ed patted her on the shoulder once and the sprinted after his sisters, laughing all of the way. Pete came up behind her and for the second time snaked his arms around her waist. He rested his head on the shoulder and whispered in her ear, 'Welcome to Narnia!'.


	2. No… This Isn’t Awkward At All

**Sorry to all you Caspian fans, but that romance comes later on in the story so please just bear with me. I thought while I was still in the mood of writing I might as well start writing the second chapter. So enjoy and please R&R!!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own anything in the Chronicles of Narnia (if I did I would definitely not be writing fan fiction). I only own Danielle!**

Chapter 2: No… This Isn't Awkward At All

Pete dragged Danny by the hand so that she would join in the fun in the sea. However, she was quite content to stand and gawk at the stunning scenery. That was until Pete thought that she wasn't being any fun and decided to drench her by splashing her with sea water. It definitely stopped her looking at the view as she immediately chased after Pete and jumped on his back soaking him as well in the process. Lu and Ed were pulling faces at the two being so… well coupley, but this was soon stopped with a quick 'You know, I saw that' from Danielle. Who then promptly sprinted after Ed, who came off worse for wear as he ended up falling face first into the sea.

After Danny had stopped rolling around with laughter at the sight of Ed dripping wet, she extended her arm to him and helped him to his feet. She then turned around to look up at some ancient ruins that Ed had been staring at with an open mouth.

'I'm not actually sure we are in Narnia… I don't remember there being any ruins in Narnia' shouted Ed to the others and pointing with his finger to indicate to the others the location of his discovery.

Danielle knew that there was gonna be in trouble when she saw that mischievous look in Pete's eyes. 'Well, let's check them out then' he said.

The five of them managed to find a safe path to the ruins. They wondered around what looked to be the ruins of an ancient castle. Danny wondered around and couldn't help but be captivated by the place. It had obviously been a grand castle at one point. Then her stomach grumbled rather loudly and she suddenly realised that they were in quite a situation. They had no food or water and it looked as though they were stuck here. Lucy found some apple trees that had once been a mighty orchard which solved the problem of food.

'I wonder who lived here' said Lu quietly. It seemed a shame to break the quiet that everyone had been in. For some unknown reason the ruins felt safe.

'I think we did' replied Susan. Everyone turned round to gape at her. Danny was rendered speechless. She had heard all about the mighty castle of Cair Paravel in the Pevensie's stories but what she could not understand is how they were stood in a ruined castle that the Pevensie's had once lived in. They had never mentioned any other castle but Cair Paravel.

'Hey that's mine from my chess set!' exclaimed Ed, bending over a small gold horse that Susan had picked up from the ground. Danny suppressed a laugh that was threatening to escape her. Ed had actually played chess!!

'Which chess set?' questioned Peter, staring intently at Ed as if he were hoping that the castle wouldn't be Cair Paravel.

'Well I didn't exactly have a solid gold chess set in Finchley did I?' Ed retorted.

'No, it can't be' exclaimed Lucy dashing off on to a raised platform. There were stumps of columns all the way down the center of the room, indicating that this room had once been of great importance.

'Don't you see?' Lu asked her brothers and sister. 'Imagine walls. … and columns there… and a glass roof'. Danny stood awkwardly off to the side as Lucy placed them all in a certain position. They all gazed around and a sudden look of realisation hit each of there faces.

'Cair Paravel' Peter voiced.

Edmund ran over to a different part of the castle. 'Catapults' he said, 'This didn't just happen, Cair Paravel was attacked.' The boys exchanged a meaningful glance and the girls looked distraught. Who would want to attack their beloved castle? Something had gone terribly wrong here.

The boys exchanged another glance, this time one that Danny could not read. They both ran to a panel of a wall that had remained intact and began to push it aside. A door was revealed behind it and Peter pulled away a section of the rotted door so that he could open it. The girls then became very excited but no one had appeared to have noticed that Danny was among them in their excitement. No one explained what was happening and she was left to watch in confusion.

Peter pulled out an old torch and then putting on a whole tough guy act, ripped off some of his shirt. He then asked if Ed had any matches. Ed then promptly pulled out a new battery torch and Ed and Danny just laughed at the look on Peter's face.

The Pevensie's rushed down the stairs. Danny just followed slowly, still with no idea about what the hell was happening. They then reached a huge chamber, with statues and chests adorning the edges of the room. Each of the other four first gazed around the room in wonder at the fact that the room still existed and then rushed off to different chests. Exclaiming different things as they had memories of each of the objects that they pulled out of the chests. 'I can't believe it's all still here!' said Pete with a wide grin on his face.

The Pevensie's started to pull out their weapons and old clothes that they would be more comfortable in whilst they were in Narnia. Danny definitely felt rather peeved now that she hadn't been in Narnia for the first time. She was happy watching the others reacquaint themselves with their belongings but she just wished that she could join them.

Susan was the first one to notice her, stood back and leaning against one of the columns. Then she looked down at the dresses she was currently in the process of deciding which to wear. 'Boys, what can Danny wear?' the boys looked at the girls puzzled. It dawned on them that Lu was far too small to give Danny any of her dresses and Susan, being older than Danny, her dresses was far too big.

Peter gave her a shirt that she could slip on; it was a white colour and would hang loosely but would show off her curves. Susan provided a corset that would go over it; it was a beautiful black corset with red lace. That left the problem of pants. The only thing suitable that they could find was a small pair of shorts that Ed had once worn but that was when he had first arrived in Narnia and he was quite a bit smaller and so they would be very small. Pete also provided a small pair of leather boots that would be slightly large on her. Lucy, being Lucy, felt guilty that she was unable to give Danny anything and so promised that she would sort out her hair.

Peter also decided that Danny would need weapons, just in case. Danny was now very glad that her Father had taught her fencing, it had never been useful before. It would come in very handy now, after all a broadsword was not very much different. By the looks of it, all the others had a way of defending themselves and she did not want to be left defenceless. Ed provided her with a sword, it was light-weight for her but would still be strong for any time she may have to use it.

Susan realised that she no longer had her horn and Lucy had tears in her eyes as she realised that all of her friends from the last time that they were here, were all gone. Then Peter declared 'I think it's time we found out what's going on here'. Susan rolled her eyes at him.

'Don't you think it would be a good idea to get changed first?' she asked.

None of them thought twice about changing in front of the others as they were all brothers and sisters, except Danny. They all began to peel off there garments. Danny took off her top and did not realise that Pete had suddenly stopped what he was doing and was staring at the smooth, cream coloured skin of the curve of her stomach. He shook his head to stop himself continuing his stare and returned to what he was doing, although he had stopped himself looking, it didn't stop his mind from wandering there.

The boys finished changing a lot sooner than the girls, considering all the undergarments all the girls had to put on as well. They decided to wait outside. The girls carried on changing, and Danny was the first to finish. She stared at herself in an old full length mirror. She had to admit she didn't look half bad. She had on Peter's old shirt with the corset over the top. The shirt was slightly low, but she could put up with that. The shorts were extremely short and tight, Danny was too sure whether it was decent to wear these in Narnia, after all the other two girls had floor length dresses. The shorts Danny was wearing didn't even reach half way down her thigh. It showed off her whole leg down to wear the large leather boots came to, just about half way down her shin. They were almost slouch boots and her black socks were just visible above the line of the boots. However, her hair was a mess. The two girls looked every part the queens that they were, however Danny felt more like some outlaw or something. At this thought she chuckled to herself, earning herself a strange look from Susan.

Lucy finished dressing and began on Danny's hair. She combed it through and now the knots were removed, her hair sat in curls to just sit on her shoulders. Lucy didn't feel the need to do much else with her hair but just put a slide in her hair to keep it out of her eyes.

When the girls finally emerged to find the boys, both boys' mouths dropped open in surprise. They both gaped at Danny's appearance and had a hard time not ogling her low neck line and her legs. All Danny could think was, 'No… this isn't awkward at all' sarcastically. She managed to keep in check the almost uncontrollable urge she now had to cover up her legs with something… anything, or just to run behind a bush for cover. She had never been so uncovered in her life and she definitely knew her parents wouldn't have approved. She was going to find a pair of pants or leggings as soon as she could. Ed stopped ogling first as his thoughts were pulled back to the fact that this was his best friend and he blushed and turned away quickly. However, Peter didn't stop ogling and just kissed her fully on the lips for what seemed like forever and then whispered to her, 'You look so beautiful.'

'Well then, let's see your skills with a sword then' proclaimed Ed quickly, to change the subject as soon as possible. Peter's mouth dropped open in shock. 'No way Ed, what if you hurt her?' he protested. Danny completely ignored him and drew her sword and pointed it at Ed. 'Bring it on' she smirked. Her new outfit was bringing out a more adventurous side of her.

She quickly got the hang of using the sword and expertly blocked and dealt blows to Ed. They were both beginning to tire when Ed landed a well placed blow and sent the sword flying out of her hands. He placed the blade near her neck 'Touche' she said with a smile. 'Surrender?' he asked.

Danny just smiled and walked closer to Ed. As she did so, Ed pulled back the sword so that he didn't skewer her on it. Ed looked over to Pete as if to ask if he knew what she was doing. Danny quickly kicked Ed's feet out from under him, whilst he was distracted, and quickly grabbed his sword from him and gracefully twirled around so that the blade was against Ed's neck this time. 'Surrender?' she smirked. He nodded a picture of shock and horror painted on his face. 'Wait, what the hell was that?' he asked rather angrily.

'All's fair in love and war' she replied. She winked at him and pulled him to his feet, returned his sword and went to retrieve hers, laughing all the time.


	3. Definitely a Grumpy

**Hopefully everyone is enjoying this so far. I'm definitely enjoying writing it. So enjoy and please R&R!!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own anything in the Chronicles of Narnia (if I did I would definitely not be writing fan fiction). I only own Danielle!**

Chapter 3: Definitely a Grumpy

After the wink between Danny and Ed, Danny noticed a distinct hint of jealousy in the way Peter was looking at them both, well looking… slightly glaring. Danny immediately skipped over to him, threw her arms around his neck and whispered, '_He's _not the one I'm dating, relax!' and kissed him sweetly on the lips. Peter, however, was not satisfied with this and felt the need to show Ed that Danny was _his _girl. He pulled her back to him and kissed her passionately.

Suddenly, a twang sounded through the air, the sound of an arrow being fired from a bow. This could definitely not be good. Ed, Pete & Danny raced to where Lu and Susan were stood on top of a banking overlooking the river. Danny turned to see two soldiers, heavily clad in armour carrying a small looking person bound hands and feet.

'Drop him!' yelled Susan after she had released her arrow. The soldier that had been holding the prisoner dropped him overboard whilst the other soldier pulled out a crossbow. Susan immediately sprang into action and shot the man with the crossbow. In a state of fear the other soldier jumped from the boat and swam to the shore.

Pete dived straight into the water to o save the prisoner. Meanwhile, Ed had decided it would be a good idea to wade out into the river to retrieve the boat just in case. Pete and Ed both returned with the things they set off for and Lu started to cut the prisoner free from his bindings. However, if they were expecting a friendly greeting, they were sorely mistaken.

'Drop him? That's the best you can come up with?' the little man said indignantly.

'A simple thank-you would suffice' retorted Susan.

'They were fine drowning me without your help' replied the man.

Danny was astounded by how small this man was. She hadn't realised that she was downright staring at him, until he glanced up at her and glared which then earned her a nudge in the ribs from Ed.

'He's a dwarf, rather short-tempered by the looks of it, so I'd stop staring if I were you.' Explained Ed.

Danny gaped at him. 'As in snow white and the seven…?' she gasped.

'Yup' replied Ed, perfectly at ease with the situation. 'He's definitely a grumpy…' he added laughing at the dwarf who was still grumbling about being dropped in the river.

'Why were they trying to kill you anyway?' asked Lucy.

'They're Telmarines that's what they do' he replied. All of the others seemed started by this but Danny had no idea what was going on.

'Telmarines? In Narnia?' asked a shocked Ed.

'Where have you been for the last hundred years?' the dwarf replied sarcastically.

'It's a bit of a long story' Lucy said earnestly.

The dwarf was very interested in the Peter's sword that Susan was in the middle of passing back to him. He caught a bit of the engraving on it and his eyes grew wide with shock.

'Oh, you've got to be kidding me. You're it? You're the kings and queens of old?' he asked, seemingly hopingly that they would reply with a no. 'Wait; there is an extra person… Weren't there only supposed to be four of you?'

'High King Peter… the Magnificent' said Peter, extending a hand towards the dwarf for him to shake.

Both the dwarf and Danny burst out laughing, sharing a friendly glance as they were the only two laughing.

'You could probably have left out the last part' said Susan, clearly amused.

'You might be surprised' said Peter, a tiny bit offended. 'And this is Danielle, our good friend and my girlfriend, she goes wherever we go.' And with this Pete pulled her in close to his side. Then he drew his sword clearly offering the dwarf an invitation to duel with him.

'Oh, you don't want to do that, boy' said the dwarf, obviously thinking that he would be a pushover.

'Not me. Him' said Peter and with this he handed his sword to the dwarf, who dropped it to the floor with the weight of it and Ed drew his sword. The dwarf knocked Ed's sword away and the fight began. Considering that the dwarf had just been staggering with the weight of it a second ago, he was very skilled. The dwarf managed to hit Ed in the face and a worried Lucy and Danny tried to go forward to help him but were held back by Pete and Susan as they knew Ed was very capable of defeating the dwarf.

The fight continued and a few minutes later the dwarf's sword was knocked out of his grip and was sent sprawling on the ground.

'Beards and bedsteads! Maybe that horn worked after all' exclaimed the dwarf looking at the five of them in surprise.

'What horn?' asked a suddenly intense Susan.

The dwarf, they then came to know as Trumpkin, explained that Prince Caspian, the prince of the Telmarines fled his own castle because his own uncle had tried to kill him. His uncle wanted him dead so that his new-born son would be able to ascend the thrown. Caspian was chased and eventually ended up right outside Trumpkin's door, where he lived with another dwarf, Nikabrik and a talking badger named Trufflehunter. The prince blew a horn that he had upon him and was then knocked out by Nikabrik. Trufflehunter saw that the horn was the horn of Queen Susan and that it would supposedly bring back the kings and queens of old. Trumpkin did not really know what happened after that as he had gone to dispatch the rest of the soldiers that were chasing Caspian and had got caught in the process. He had been taken in front of Miraz, Caspian's uncle and had been sentenced to death because he was a Narnian. That was when the five children had found and rescued him.

Everyone decided that they should go and find the Narnians and find out what was going on here. They were also all eager to meet this infamous Prince Caspian. They took the Telmarines boat and set off down the river Glasswater. Danny sat next to Ed at the back of the boat facing Peter as he rowed the boat. The girls sat at the front facing Trumpkin.

'They're so still' said Lucy quietly, staring around at the trees.

'They're trees. What do you expect?' replied Trumpkin. Danny herself was wondering what Lucy had meant with that comment.

'They used to dance' she replied. Of course, Danielle now remembered Lu talking about the Dryads, the beings that lived within the trees and how beautiful they were.

Trumpkin looked solemn and said 'It wasn't long after you left that the Telmarines invaded. Those that survived retreated to the woods. And the trees have retreated so deeply inside themselves that no one has heard from them since.'

'I don't understand. How could Aslan have let this happen?' she asked. When the name was mentioned everyone in the boat shuddered but no one really knew why.

'Aslan? I thought he abandoned us after you lot did?' Trumpkin said.

The conversation then continued but Danny wasn't really paying attention she was staring around at Narnia and every so often Peter and Ed would point out certain things in the scenery and share their memories of the place.

Soon they pulled up on to shore. They climbed out of the boat and Trumpkin tied it up. The next thing Danny knew was that Lucy was approaching a rather ferocious looking bear, saying 'Hello there! …It's alright, we're friends.'

Danny was all for running up to Lucy and dragging her back to a safe distance but Peter put a restraining hand on her shoulder and did not seem at all bothered that Lucy was trying to talk to a bear. The bear then stood up and looked directly at Lucy.

'Don't move your majesty!' shouted Trumpkin. The bear then began to charge at Lucy and she fell backwards over a log and landed on the ground. Danny ran as fast as she could and placed herself in front of Lucy and the bear, her sword drawn, not that she was sure what to do with it against a bear! She had never hurt anyone in her fencing, never mind killing anything!

'Stay away from them!' shouted Susan, placing an arrow in the bow and pointing it at the bear.

'Susan shoot!!' shouted Ed.

Just when Danny thought that she was going to be mauled to death, an arrow went whooshing past her and struck the bear in the chest. The bear fell over on the ground, clearly dead. Danny looked over at Susan but she still had the same arrow fitted in her bow. Trumpkin stood beside her with a bow in his hands.

'Why wouldn't he stop?' asked a genuinely shocked Susan.

'I expect he was hungry' replied Trumpkin.

'He was wild!' Ed said, still staring at the bear with wide eyes.

'I don't think he could talk at all' said Pete as he walked over to Lucy and Danny. He pulled Lucy off of the ground and when he was sure she was ok he went and wrapped his arms around Danny. He hugged her tightly to him as if by doing this he was making sure that she was still here with him.

'Get treated like a dumb animal for long enough and that's what you become' replied Trumpkin bitterly. 'You may find Narnia a more savage place than you remember'

The five children looked at him in surprise. Even Danielle who had heard of all the stories of the wonderful talking animals and here she was being told that because of the stupid Telmarines the beautiful Narnia from the stories was being destroyed. Even the animals were not talking anymore! Well she would have something to say about that.


	4. Lost & Found

**Hi everyone! I am really pleased with how many people are reading this so thanks to all readers and thanks to everyone who has added this to their favourites or put a story alert on!! Some reviews would be encouraging though! *Hint, Hint***

**** Please note that I have changed some of the past chapters slightly, to make my character less Mary Sue-ish. It hasn't affected the story line; the character is just slightly more lady-like and not as outspoken. Thanks to Mary Sue Hunta for helping with the character****

**Disclaimer: You know the drill by now, if you don't please go back to a previous chapter because I can't be bothered writing it out again.**

Chapter 4: Lost & Found

'I don't remember this way at all' said Susan to Danny and Lu her walking beside her.

'That's the problem with girls. You can't carry a map in your heads' said Pete from up front who had obviously been eavesdropping on their conversation. Danny raised her eyebrow at him but before she had time to say anything to him Lucy retorted,

'That's because we have something in them' which made both Danny and Susan burst out laughing at the look on Peter's face.

From the shore where they had first arrived they had decided that they needed to find Prince Caspian and the remaining Narnians as soon as possible. Trumpkin had started to lead the way to where he had last seen Prince Caspian, however Pete insisted that he knew a shorter way to the destination and had taken charge. He was currently leading the way but none of the other Pevensie's had any idea where he was leading them, they did not remember the way he was taking them.

'I wish he'd just listen to the DLF' said Susan to the girls.

'DLF?' asked Ed, who was walking close to them but hadn't actually been a part of the conversation.

'Dear Little Friend' the three of them replied together, causing them all to burst out laughing again.

'Oh, that's not patronizing, is it? Said Trumpkin sarcastically, causing another round of hysterical laughter to come from the girls.

Apparently, everyone around here eavesdropped on everyone else's conversation. Danny had always been taught that it was not polite to listen to anyone else's conversation unless you were invited to. This was another part of her upbringing. Her Mother had always been adamant that she was to remain a perfect lady.

Pete then led them to a sort of stone passageway and stopped, looking around for the way to go.

'I'm not lost' he said more to himself than to anyone else but this did not stop Trumpkin from relying, 'No… you're just going the wrong way'.

'You said you last saw Caspian at the Shuddering Wood and the quickest way there is to cross at the River Rush' he replied rather tetchily. Danny was starting to notice that Peter was a lot more proud here, he didn't seem to be able to admit he was wrong. He also appeared to have a shorter temper.

'But, unless I'm mistaken, there's no crossing here' said Trumpkin whose patience was starting to wear thin. If they were going to get to the Shuddering Wood anytime this year, they were going to have to start listening to him.

'That explains it then, you're mistaken' said Peter giving a glare to the dwarf.

They continued walking until they came to the edge of a very steep cliff. Danny peered over the edge and instantly regretted it as a very long way down was a very dangerous-looking and fast flowing river. She had never been good with heights at the best of times.

'Over hundreds of years water eroded the earth's soil…' Susan began explaining.

'Oh, shut up! Is there a way down?' asked Peter quickly trying not to give an opportunity to Susan to start again. He was in a bad enough mood as it was and this was not helping the situation.

'Yeah, falling' retorted the dwarf, rather smug at having being proved right. 'There's a ford at Beruna. Any of you mind swimming?' Trumpkin couldn't help but think that if they had listened to him in the first place, they would have arrived a lot sooner.

'Anything's better than walking' replied Susan, trying to put an optimistic outlook on the situation to try and lighten the atmosphere.

They slowly began to leave the edge of the cliff and walk back into the woods and Danny couldn't help but be grateful for this. The further away from the cliff she was, the safer she would feel. She glanced back and saw that Lu was still stood near the cliff gazing at something on the other side.

Suddenly she exclaimed 'Aslan?... It's Aslan! It's Aslan over there! Well, can't you see? He's right… there' she trailed off the end of her sentence when she looked back at where Aslan had been standing and he had completely vanished. The smile that had graced her face at the sight of the great lion had vanished almost as suddenly as it had appeared. The others looked around at each other to see what the others thought of her exclamation. Everyone seemed rather confused as to why she saw Aslan and no one else had done.

'Do you see him now?' asked Trumpkin obviously doubting that Lucy had actually seen anything.

'I'm not crazy. He was there. He wanted us to follow him' she said, glancing at her siblings and at Danny to see if any of them would actually believe her.

'I'm sure there are any number of lions in this wood. Just like that bear.' Peter replied, putting a sensible outlook on the situation. Danny however could not help but doubt what Peter had said. Last time they had come to Narnia, the siblings had all doubted Lucy and what she saw but in the end they were proved wrong. Danny wasn't even sure who Aslan was, but by the mention of the bear, she guessed he was a talking animal.

'I think I know Aslan when I see him' retorted Lu, now getting rather annoyed that no one seemed to believe her.

'Look, I'm not about to jump off a cliff after someone who doesn't exist' finalised Trumpkin.

Then Ed voiced the very thoughts that Danny had been thinking, 'The last time I didn't believe Lucy, I ended up looking pretty stupid'

'Why wouldn't I have seen him?' asked Peter, suddenly looking very unsure of himself.

'Maybe you weren't looking' pleaded Lucy, all of her just wishing that Peter would believe in her.

'I'm sorry Lu' said Peter and walked away. Ed walked over to Lu and patted her on the shoulder and gave her a look to say that they should follow Peter. Danny stood on the other side of Lu and wrapped her arm around Lucy's small shoulders. She did not know what to believe, it was the others that had been to Narnia before and she was still confused about what was going on the majority of the time, she felt she didn't know enough to pass judgement.

What felt like hours of walking later, they eventually arrived at the ford that Trumpkin had said was there. Indeed, it was still there but what they hadn't expected was that hundreds of Telmarine soldiers were surrounding it, building a huge bridge. By the looks of it, it was almost finished and so the five children and the dwarf sneaked closer to the construction to see if they could hear any additional information that may be of help. They all hid behind a large pile of logs but they did not hear anything that would be of use to them.

Finally Susan said 'Perhaps this wasn't the best way after all.' With that said, they all walked back to the gorge where Lucy had said she saw Aslan.

'Where do you think you saw Aslan?' Peter asked Lucy peering over at the woods on the far side of the gorge.

'I wish you'd all stop acting like grown-ups. I didn't think I saw him, I did see him' Lucy said confidently.

'I am a grown-up' said Trumpkin quietly, defending himself.

'It was right around…' Lucy started and then Danny screamed as Lucy suddenly disappeared as the ground beneath her feet crumbled away.

'…here' Lucy finished, looking up at the rest of the group from a small ledge that had been revealed when she fell. They all looked down to see a small path winding its way down the cliff and there was small stepping stones leading across a shallower part of the river.

The path was very slippery and the girls had to be helped quite often as they nearly fell. Peter and Ed helped Danny and Susan and Trumpkin kept a close watch on Lu. However, they eventually made it to the other side, without any casualties.

By this time, the sun was starting to set over them and so they decided that they would have to make a camp for the night. They set up a camp fire and they still had some apples that they had brought with them from Cair Paravel. Peter made the decision that they should all go to sleep quite early so that they could carry on travelling early in the morning, so that they would reach their destination before midday.

Danny lay on her back gazing at the stars. She pondered about the day she had just had. She half expected herself to wake up at any minute. She had been told about Narnia but she had never in her wildest dreams expected that she would ever get a chance to go there herself. Close to her, she heard Lucy and Susan talking, Susan was wondering why she hadn't seen Aslan and realising that Lu had always known that at some point they would return to Narnia. However, soon the girls grew quiet and she realised that they had fallen asleep. She looked over to see Ed, staring into the fire.

'Ed?' Danny said quietly so as not to disturb anyone else. He looked over at her in her reply. 'Do you think we'll find a way back to England?'

Ed looked thoughtful for a moment and then replied with 'Yes, we found a way home last time so I don't see why we won't find a way home this time. Don't worry about it'

'I'm not worried, I just feel… I don't know how to describe it, almost… at home here. It's so peaceful and so different from England.' Danny replied.

'Hmmm…' was all Ed said but started observing her in a way that made Danny feel rather uncomfortable. It was as if he was trying to read her thoughts or something like that.

'Are you two going to shut up so that some of can get some sleep?' asked Peter teasingly but made Danny jump as she had thought he was asleep.

Danny scooted closer to the fire and she shivered as the night was beginning to get chilly.

'Cold?' Peter whispered quietly in her ear as he scooted closer to her so that he was lying directly behind her.

Danny just nodded, knowing full well that he would be able to see her answer, which he did. He pulled her closer to him so that she was pressed against him and he wrapped his arm around her. In this position, the two of them fell to sleep.

However, in the early morning Danny was woken by a noise in the camp. She sat upright sharply and looked to see Peter still deep in sleep; his arm had come off her some time during the night. She looked just in time to see Lucy disappearing alone between the trees. Danny immediately shook Peter awake. He awoke suddenly and looked as if he were about to defend himself against her but when he realised who it was, he led back down, exhausted.

'Don't you go back to sleep Peter Pevensie! Lucy just disappeared; she's alone in the woods!' shouted Danny, her shouts waking the others in the camp.

Peter dashed up and ran into the woods after Lucy, in the direction that Danny had pointed out.

Peter found Lucy about to walk out into the open towards a growling sound. She had obviously thought that it was Aslan again. However, Peter reached her in time and put a hand over her mouth. He looked over at where the growling had come from and they both saw a rather ferocious looking minotaur. Peter signalled for Lucy to remain quiet and they both started to edge away.

By this time, Danny had woken everyone else fully and had filled them in on what had happened. She led the others into the woods in the direction that Peter had gone looking for Lucy and they only just got there in time to see someone swing a sword at Peter. However, Peter had heard the intruder and had blocked his sword. The two then began fighting very ferociously.

Danny screamed, no longer able to prevent herself, 'No!!'


	5. Milady Malarkey

**Hi everyone. Sorry it has been so long since I updated but I have been busy with a show I was in and then the document uploader wouldn't work :(. Please, please could some people review, I will be eternally grateful. Oh, and Caspian is actually in this chapter :D Yay!! **

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything, except Danielle.**

Chapter 5: Milady Malarkey

Danny screamed out and Peter's attacker stopped and stared at her. However, Peter took advantage oh his attacker's lapse in concentration and swung his sword at him. The attacker looked shocked but did not waste anymore time staring at Danny and swiftly parried Peter's blow. However, I couple of blows later and the attacker's sword was sent flying out of his hands and into the undergrowth somewhere. Peter sent a few more blows at the now unarmed man. The man ducked and dodged a few blows until Peter's sword got lodged in a tree after the man had ducked under the blow.

Danny got a clear look at the man. He had very dark hair and rather tanned skin. He was obviously Telmarine, judging from his clothes and what she had heard from Trumpkin.

At this moment, the Telmarine attempted to pull Peter's sword out of the tree and whilst the mans back was turned Peter picked up a large rock and rather un-chivalrously looked as though he was going to clobber the man over the head with it.

'No!! Stop!!' screamed Lucy and this time both the attacker and Peter turned and stared at Lucy. Danny was slightly put out that they hadn't stopped when she had screamed practically the same thing. Peter looked at the rock in is hand and lowered it and then began to notice Narnians surrounding the clearing where the two men had been fighting. There were all manner of creatures: all sorts of animals (no doubt talking animals), dwarves, centaurs, minotaurs and all other sorts of creatures that Danny didn't even have a name for. To be frank she was rather scared by all these new creatures. Peter now had a slightly gormless look on his face and just stared around.

He then turned back around to face the Telmarine, who had finally managed to dislodge Peter's sword from the tree and was pointing it at him.

'Prince Caspian?' Peter asked the man.

'Yes?' the attacker, well Prince Caspian replied. 'And who are you?' he asked cautiously.

'Peter!' screamed Susan, who appeared to only just have reached the clearing with Ed and now realised that a Telmarine was holding her unarmed brother at sword-point. Needless to say, she was rather concerned and that was what had caused her outburst.

Prince Caspian now looked down and studied the sword that he had in his hand. He quickly read the inscription. It dawned on him that this was the sword that Aslan had given King Peter. It was too much of a coincidence that this was King Peter's sword and this man, well boy, in front of him was called Peter.

'High King Peter?' Prince Caspian asked, in a Spanish accent.

'I believe you called' replied Peter, rather cockily if Danny did say so herself.

'Well… yes, but I thought you'd be older' Prince Caspian replied, looking rather confused.

'Well if you like we can come back in a few years' Peter said, obviously knowing his own importance in this place and did not like the fact that this 'Prince' was not impressed by what he saw in them. So Peter turned as if he intended to leave, when Danny and the rest of the Pevensie's knew that Peter would never truly leave Narnia in its hour of need.

'No!... No, that's alright. I just… you're not exactly what I expected.' Prince Caspian replied quickly. He now studied the other Pevensie's his eyes examining Lucy and Ed and then falling on Susan. Then quickly turned to Danny who was looking at him curiously. Neither of them realised how long they had been openly staring at each other until Ed came in with;

'Neither are you' he then raised an eyebrow at Danny and smirked slightly, when she looked rather uncomfortably and her gaze switched guiltily from the Prince to Peter.

Caspian then almost did a double take and counted the girls present.

'I thought there were only two queens of Narnia?' he asked, genuinely confused and his gaze flitting back and forth between the five new people, however Ed noted that his gaze landed on Danny far more than it did with any of the others.

'My brother Edmund and sisters, Lucy and Susan' Peter introduced pointing each one out in turn and then walked over to Danny and placed his arm around her shoulders 'and this is my girlfriend, this is her first time in Narnia and so I would appreciate it if she is well looked after'

Caspian nodded and now stared at Danny again as he had now been given an excuse to be able to examine her more closely. She was pretty, not beautiful, if she had been in a crowd she would most likely have just faded into the background. There was nothing that unusual about her but Caspian felt a longing to get to know her and was strangely uneasy with the arm of the King draped around her. He smirked as he saw that she had noticed his scrutiny and had turned a very lovely shade of pink and was now staring at the ground as if she had found something very interesting there. He knew that she had no intention of lifting her head until his gaze moved elsewhere.

'A common enemy unites even the oldest of foes' Trufflehunter, the talking badger that Trumpkin had told them about, interrupted the silence that had fallen upon the clearing.

'We have anxiously awaited your return my liege. Our hearts and swords are at your service' said a small mouse that had leaped out of the undergrowth. It had a sword tied on a belt around its waist and had an earring and a red feather on the top of its head. Danny jumped backwards and out of Peters reach in shock, she was still not used to talking animals and this one had appeared suddenly and this had made her jump as she was not expecting it. The mouse gave a little bow and Danny could not help but find this rather adorable.

'Oh my gosh! He is so cute' Lucy said quietly to Susan, voicing what Danny had been thinking not moments ago.

'Who said that?' Reepicheep, the mouse, exclaimed, seemingly insulted by this remark and drawing his sword at the same time, looking around for the culprit.

'Sorry' Lucy said rather bashfully, embarrassed at having insulted him.

'Oh, your majesty, with the greatest respect, I do believe courageous, courteous or chivalrous might more befit a knight of Narnia.' Reepicheep said proudly, smiling up at the young girl and sheathing his small, but rather sharp looking blade. Danny did not doubt that he could do some serious damage with that blade.

'Well, at least we know some of you can handle a blade' Peter said sarcastically, obviously attempting to insult the Prince. Danny couldn't help but think that Peter was different here; she wasn't sure whether she liked that. Being a King here appeared to have gone to his head.

'Yes indeed, and I have recently put it to good use securing weapons for your army, sire.' Reepicheep said proudly, nodding wisely.

'Good because we are going to need every sword we can get.' Peter said looking directly at Prince Caspian, almost challenging him to defy what he had said. Peter didn't seem to like the fact that the Prince had been in charge whilst he had not been there.

'Well then, you will probably be wanting yours back' the prince retorted with a slight smirk. Danny almost laughed at this comment but managed to hold it back as she was sure that Peter would not have appreciated that. With that, the prince handed Peter his sword back and the Narnians began to lead a way into the forest and Peter walked close to the head of the procession whilst Prince Caspian hung back.

Ed joined Peter near the front, they were close enough to the front to show that they were in charge again but far enough back so that they would actually know where they were going. Susan and Lucy were in the middle just behind Trumpkin, Trufflehunter and Nikabrik. Danny walked on her own behind Susan and Lucy, although smiled when she heard Trumpkin complain about the five children's behaviour but when asked replied that he liked them well enough.

Danny enjoyed watching the scenery but felt slightly out of place as everyone else seemed to be walking and talking in pairs. That was when Prince Caspian approached her and smiled but did not say anything and carried on walking. Danny bowed her head to him and greeted him with 'Your highness'

'Please, call me Caspian, in these lands, I am but a man, I am a Prince only to the Telmarines and that title has been taken from me by my uncle. I am now an outlaw' he said casually, although Danny picked up on the sadness in his deep brown eyes.

'I am sorry, I have been told about your uncle from Trumpkin, it must be hard from you to be away from your people' she said softly.

'It must be hard for you as well; you are, also, away from your people and in a completely foreign land. If you are not related to the Pevensie's then you will be away from your family as well' he glanced to the front at Peter but looked curiously at the girl who had gone quiet and rather pale and was, again, staring intently at the ground. He was trying to get to know her and find out as much about her as possible, the girl who was a stranger to their lands.

'I lost my parents several years ago, I have no one back in England besides the Pevensie's' she said softly and looked up and smiled and laughed, 'besides Narnia is so beautiful, I'm not sure I'll want to go back to England after this.'

'I am sorry, I know how it feels to loose your parents, I went through exactly the same thing when I was younger' he smiled softly at her. That was when he noticed the purple bruise that had bloomed on her right cheek. Anger rose inside him, that either something or someone had dared to hurt this gentle young woman that stood beside him.

'How did this happen?' he asked her, gently reaching out and tracing his fingers gently down the bruise, gently enough not to hurt her but to indicate what exactly he was talking about. Her skin was very soft under his rather battle-hardened hands and his hand seemed to fit perfectly around her cheek.

She blushed but replied with 'It was nothing really, someone was about to hit Edmund and I couldn't let them hurt him so they… erm… well, hit me instead'.

Caspian's anger increased that someone had dared to this to her, if it was within his power he would have taught this person a valuable lesson. He hissed in anger and voiced his thoughts with 'Who would have dared to lay a hand on a beautiful young lady such as yourself'

Danny noticed that his eyes seemed almost alight with his anger and at that moment she noticed how very handsome he was. She then set her thoughts back on track, that those were no such thoughts that someone like her should be thinking, especially considering that she had Peter.

While she was lost in her thoughts she hadn't noticed the long silence that had enveloped them. Neither had Caspian as he was still observing her and gently running his hand down her cheek. He then seemed to realise that he still had hold of her face and quickly dropped his hand.

'I am very sorry milady, that was inappropriate' he was the one looking at the floor this time but glanced up at her to judge her reaction. Would she be angry at him? After all, there was High King Peter to consider.

She smiled at him and simply replied 'Please don't bother with all of that milady malarkey' and she then paused to wonder if that rubbish had actually just come out of her mouth.

'Then what shall I call you, as you clearly know my name but I still have no name to put to your face' Caspian smiled back at her.

'Danny' she replied.

'Danny? Why have you a male name?' he asked, confusion written clearly all over his face which made Danny giggle rather shamefully.

'My full name is Danielle, but everyone calls me Danny. You can call me whichever you prefer' she said, still extremely amused.

'Danielle it is then' he said, reaching for her hand and gently sweeping his lips over her knuckles. For some reason, the name Danny had sounded right coming from him, but Danielle fell from his lips perfectly and an emotion rose up in Danielle that rather scared her as she had no idea what it was. Contentment.


	6. There Was Even A Table

**Hi! Again, some reviews would be nice please guys ******** I don't particularly like this chapter, it is rather boring, but for anyone who hasn't seen the film or read the book, it is kinda essential, so please bare with me. **

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything! (except Danielle)**

Chapter 6: There Was Even A Table

The pair continued walking through the woods in a comfortable, companionable silence. Until they reached the end of the woods and stepped out into the beautiful sunlight into a wide, green clearing. It was a wide expanse of grass surrounded by the forest. At the end of this clearing was a beautiful stone building that Danielle for some reason thought must be very significant as all the Narnians were staring at it very proudly. Danielle's breath caught in her throat and came out as a very large gasp. Beside her, Caspian almost laughed but caught himself in time, as he knew that this would cause her to blush again and they may well lapse back into being uncomfortable around each other. Then again, he could never be uncomfortable around her; he loved the way he could make her blush so easily. However, it would be her that would not feel comfortable and he did not want to put her to any discomfort.

'I must go join Kings Peter and Edmund at the front; I have many things I need to talk to them about. I apologise leaving you here without another escort' Caspian said sincerely.

'Without another escort?' laughed Danny 'We're surrounded by hundreds of Narnians, I doubt I could get lost even if I tried. But, thank you for your concern. I'll see you later?'

'Without a doubt' Caspian replied and with another kiss on her hand, he ran to the front to join her best friend and boyfriend. She suddenly realised what he had meant about leaving her without an escort, she now had no one to talk to and felt very lonely again without his presence.

As they approached the building the four Pevensies and Caspian led the way. A number of centaurs lined up on either side of the entrance and raised their swords in honour of the Kings and Queens of old returning. The Pevensies headed for the entrance, however Caspian held back so that the Pevensies would enter first and then he set off with the rest of the Narnians shortly behind. Danny was pleased that her friends were so important and revered here, but she couldn't help but feel lonely and slightly left out. She was nobody here, possibly even a hindrance. Why had Ed brought her here in the first place? Danny entered the stone building with the group of Narnians, walking under the line of centaur's swords.

She walked in to here the clang of metal, the Narnians here were producing weapons and armour for the oncoming battle against the Telmarines. As she continued walking the Narnians around her split off to complete different jobs and she was left not knowing where to go. She spotted the Pevensies, Caspian, Trufflehunter, Trumpkin and Nikabrik slightly ahead and so sprinted to catch them up. As she approached Caspian smiled slightly but he then turned to watch Peter who had stopped and was watching some Narnians work.

'It may not be what you are used to but it is defensible.' Caspian told him, almost waiting for the King to tell him that it was not good enough.

'Peter! You may want to see this.' Susan shouted from across the room. Danny had not even noticed that everyone else had disappeared leaving her with Peter and Caspian. Peter just nodded at Susan and made his way to her, with Danny and Caspian following.

Susan led them down a small passageway off the side of the main hall. There was no one down here besides the Pevensies, Danny and Caspian. It was also dark and so Ed was able to turn off his torch, to save the batteries, when Peter brought in a flame torch. Danny gazed around at the murals on the wall; they almost seemed to tell a story. There were many pictures but it was hard to understand the meaning of it all. However, Susan solved all of Danny's unanswered questions when she spoke.

'It's us' she said softly.

'What is this place?' Lucy asked.

'You don't know?' asked Caspian and only received blank looks from the Pevensies. Danny was just stood clueless between the Pevensies and Caspian. With this Caspian grabbed another torch and led them round the corner and down a few more passageways into an even larger hall than the original one. It was pitch black at first but Caspian lit the light trails that were used to light up the whole of the hall quickly and the giant hall was swiftly illuminated. Danny wondered why the Narnians had never bothered to use this hall instead. There was even a table in here… despite the fact that it was split in two, it could still have been useful.

The Pevensies just stared around the room until they all had a strange look on their faces as they all stared at a huge mural of a lion on the far side of the hall and the giant cracked table in front of it. Lucy was the first to walk forward to touch the table, soon followed by her brothers and sister. It seemed like a rather private moment for the Pevensies and so Danny and Caspian just stayed back trying to keep as still and quiet as possible.

'He must know what he's doing' Lucy told her siblings. It was at this moment that Danny realised that Aslan must be the lion in the mural, but he was a talking animal. He obviously meant a lot to Lucy as she was desperate to have seen him in the woods and she, now, almost looked as if she was going to burst into tears at any moment.

The other three didn't reply for a while and just stood in silence, staring at the picture of the giant lion. Danielle couldn't help but think that the lion looked majestic and it gave her chills just looking at the mural. He must have been amazing to behold in the flesh.

Peter broke the spell-like atmosphere in the room with, 'I think it's up to us now.' He led the way out of the room and Susan, Ed and Caspian followed him, leaving Lucy in the room. Danny was about to follow when she saw that Lucy was crying.

She wrapped Lucy up in a comforting hug, looked up at the mural and said 'I'm guessing this is Aslan and that this is the stone table.'

Lucy nodded and smiled at Danny's intelligence with having recalled the story of the stone table. The table where the white witch had killed Aslan, as Aslan had sacrificed himself in return for Ed's life. However, as he had sacrificed himself he was brought back to life by the ancient magic and Aslan had returned to conquer the white witch.

Danny smiled gently and said 'The others will worry about you if you're missing for too long. They care about you so much. They just find it hard to believe that Aslan will save the day again.'

Lucy just nodded and took Danny's hand and they both left the huge hall. They found the others in the main hall, talking to the faun that had been on guard duty and had spotted a Telmarine spy. Caspian announced that they needed an emergency meeting and that they would meet as soon as possible in the room holding the stone table. Peter looked furious that Caspian had just taken charge and fumed all the way to the stone table as they waited for the Narnians to assemble. Pete stood near the stone table, clearly taking charge of the meeting and Caspian just stood nearby. Lucy was sat on the table and Susan, Ed and Danny stood back just listening and watching, the first two ready to make a contribution when it was needed. Ed and Danny settled down on a piece of rubble and talked quietly until everyone was ready.

'Miraz's men and war machines are on their way. That means those same men aren't protecting his castle.' Peter addressed all of the Narnians once they were assembled in the room.

'What do you propose we do your majesty?' Reepicheep asked him.

At this both Caspian and Peter began talking and it was hard to distinguish what either of them was saying due to the authority in both of their voices. They both stopped and stared at each other and Peter raised an eyebrow at the Prince. Caspian looked rather embarrassed and just nodded at Peter for him to continue and lowered his eyes to the ground. Danny was becoming more and more sure that Peter's importance was going to his head and he was forgetting that Caspian had been leading these people before him, he was the one to unite the Narnians to fight the Telmarines and was also, no doubt, used to being referred to as 'your majesty'. It was not his fault. Peter looked rather shocked at the confused and rather disappointed look that Danny was giving him but he continued nevertheless.

'Our only is to strike them before they strike us' he said.

'But that's crazy; no one has ever taken that castle.' Caspian argued.

'There's always a first time' countered Peter.

'We will have the element of surprise' added Trumpkin, nodding his head at Peter.

'But we have the advantage here' Caspian argued further.

'If we dig in, we could probably hold them off indefinitely' added Susan, seeing the sense in Caspian's plan but knowing that Peter would probably have his way in the end. Peter just gave her a dirty look when she came to the aid of Caspian, whom Peter seemed to want to prove he was better than and that he seemed intent to hate.

'I for one feel safer underground' added Trufflehunter, being a badger and all.

'Look, I appreciate what you've done here but this isn't a fortress, it's a tomb' said Peter very seriously to Caspian.

'Yes and if they're smart then the Telmarines will just wait and starve us out' added Ed, siding with Peter. Danny was no expert in battles, hell, she didn't know anything about them. She had never been to Narnia before and she wasn't brought up being taught these kinds of things. Both sides of this argument displeased her, as they both seemed to end in death.

'We could collect nuts?' said a squirrel, which seemed to be rather hyperactive.

'Yes! And throw them at the Telmarines!... Shut Up!' said Reepicheep sarcastically. 'I think you know where I stand, sire'

'If I get your troops in, can you handle the guards?' Peter asked the chief centaur, Glenstorm.

There was a long silence in reply and then 'Or die trying, my liege.' Glenstorm replied.

'That's what I'm worried about' said Lucy quietly, but loud enough for everyone in the room to hear what she said.

'I'm sorry?' asked Peter, turning to her, confused.

'Everyone's acting as if there are only two options dying here or dying there' she said, Danny looked at her and realised that she had indeed grown up to be a wise woman when she was last in Narnia, as those words were more mature than her age.

'I'm not sure you've really been listening, Lu' said Peter condescendingly, earning himself another disappointed look from Danny.

'No, _you're _not listening. Or have you forgotten who_ really_ defeated the white witch, Peter' said Lucy, determined that she would get Peter to listen for once. He had never been the same ever since they got back from Narnia. He was frustrated with being treated like a child again after he had grown to be a good man and king in Narnia. However, this gave him no reason to behave the way he had been doing, picking fights with anyone and everyone.

'I think we've waited for Aslan long enough' announced Peter and left the hall.

The decision had been made by Peter that they were storming Miraz's castle and slowly the Narnians filed out of the hall. Lucy remained there a while looking up at the mural, she knew she was right. Something would go horribly wrong with their plan.


	7. Just Two Nobodies

**Hey again! Sorry it's taken so long, I've been so busy with GCSE coursework. Thanks to all the reviewers! A few details about Caspian's parents in this chapter I made up, I skimmed through the book trying to see if they were there, I couldn't find them and I can't remember if they are there. So sorry about that if I get anything wrong. I'm not sure that I like this chapter, it is a lot darker than the other chapters… let me know what you think please. **

**Disclaimer: Don't own anything (except Danielle)**

Chapter 7: Just Two Nobodies

'I'm sorry about Peter, he isn't usually like this. He just seems intent on hating you' Danielle had found Caspian in an empty chamber with his head in his hands. He appeared to be counting the number of things that could go wrong with the raid that had been planned for that evening. They had exactly ten hours to prepare.

'Why are you apologising on behalf of him? He obviously hasn't shown remorse and why should he? He is the King and I am just a nobody here' replied Caspian sitting up to look at Danny. He then patted the rock next to him and she sat down beside him.

'I'm apologising because I feel bad about it, even if he doesn't. You have more knowledge of the Telmarines, so why should you not be able to judge whether this plan will work or not?' argued Danny.

'Danielle, you shouldn't feel bad about it, it is not your fault' Caspian said with finality in his voice. 'Are you joining us tonight?' He wasn't sure whether he wanted to know the answer to his question; he loved her spirit and determination and yet he did not want her anywhere near the battlefield, he was only just beginning to know her and did not want to lose this girl. He also suspected that Peter would murder him if anything were to happen to her, even if it wasn't his fault. However, his question was only met with silence.

'I think you are the only one that believes that you are a nobody here' replied Danielle; completely ignoring his last question and Caspian was too confused by her last comment to notice. She noticed his confused expression and continued, 'I can see the way the Narnians look to you. You give them a hope that Peter can't give them. You are giving them a hope that Narnians and Telmarines can live peacefully together. You can return their freedom to them. They look to Peter to lead them through this battle because of all the stories that they have heard about the Kings and Queens of old but at the end of the day, they look to you as the future. Peter can't replace you as that, no matter how hard he tries, at some point he will have to return to England, where as you will remain and rule Narnia. He's upset that he can't do the same; he doesn't want to leave again'

Caspian was too shocked to say much at that and just blushed. No one had really made him see that before, he had been too wrapped up in the fact that Peter was really getting under his skin, he had never considered this perspective. He glanced sideways at the girl sat beside him, she must not even be eighteen yet, several years younger than him, yet she had so much more insight than he did.

'What were your parents like?' she asked. He gaped at this question, no matter what happened she always appeared to be able to catch him off guard and it didn't even appear that she tried to do so.

He regained his composure and finally answered her, 'My father was a great ruler. He was a kind and compassionate King and I truly hope that if he had known that Narnians were still alive, that he would have allowed them freedom. He was a wonderful man and I remember him always finding time to spend with me, teaching me how to ride and use a blade and he would even read me stories at night, despite all of his obligations as a ruler. He loved my mother with all his heart, I am told that she was beautiful and had a wonderful singing voice which could charm anyone's soul. She was a kind woman and brought out the best in my father. I feel a distinct loss at never having gotten the chance to know her; she died giving birth to me. Yet, my father never thought the worse of me, despite that he lost his wife thanks to me. Yet up until the day he died, he loved me with all of his heart and always told me how proud he was of me. I lost him when I was six years old. He died in his sleep.' Caspian finished his story and looked to find that Danielle had tears rolling down her face at the story the prince had just told.

'Your father would be more proud of you than ever Caspian. You are giving these people safety, freedom and so much more. It is a shame that you could not grow to know your parents as you wish you could, but despite that you are one of the most compassionate and selfless people I have ever met.' Danielle said softly, tears still streaming down her face.

'I disagree, I know a much more selfless person. She knows exactly what to say to people to give them hope and determination when they are about to lose it. She is determined and yet despite that, she is not greedy or selfish. That girl is sat in front of me now.' He concluded.

She buried her face in her hands and began to sob earnestly and Caspian placed an awkward arm around her shoulders not exactly sure what he had said to upset her so, his words were meant to be a compliment.

'A selfless girl who is afraid to go into battle to defend her friends and the only people she has left to call family? A girl who is too terrified to stand up for what she knows is right and yet still can't bring herself to go? I don't call that selfless, the opposite in fact, I call that very selfish! I've lost any self-respect that I had left remaining in myself' she said between sobs, half expecting that Caspian would stand up and walk away from her now, disgusted. Yet he still remained there with his arm around her, now patting her shoulder gently.

'We are all scared of the upcoming raid; we are all scared of losing people. I understand that you are more scared than would be normal because of the fact that you lost your parents. I probably understand that better than most would here. We need all of the swords we can get here, yet if it scares you that much, then you should remain here with Lucy. I think Peter would prefer if you remained here anyway. Does he even know you feel this way?' Caspian was trying to comfort her and yet nothing he was saying was diminishing the sobs that were wracking her body.

'No, he doesn't know. I've never told him this and I've never told him what I'm about to tell you. He would be disgusted and so will you once I tell you. I'm disgusted in myself, I can't stand the fact that I'm shaking at the very thought of this raid and yet I can't let myself me left behind. I need to be there to make sure that everyone is alright. I can't be left behind here, it would drive me insane!' she paused for another few sobs and Caspian politely waited for her to continue.

'Death. All I see is death and it terrifies be to the bone. I never used to be like this, but ever since my parents died, I can't… I just… I know that on this raid I will be useless to everyone because I cannot bring myself into a position where I may be killed. I'm a coward! I also couldn't bring myself to harm anyone else, I can't become a murderer and I'm too scared of being murdered. I can't die the way my parents did, Caspian!' she sobbed and shook and looked absolutely horrified with herself. Caspian didn't know what he could do to help Danielle, but he felt such sympathy for her, despite not entirely knowing what she was on about. Yet the state she was in tugged at his heart. He needed to understand her.

'What happened to your parents?' he asked after a while, at a point where she was not sobbing quite as badly. Frankly, she was still surprised that he was here and so answered his question.

'I woke up one night and heard the front door slam shut, it was the middle night and I was nine years old so I went to ask my parents who it was. I was also slightly scared that we may be being robbed. I went into my parents' room and my mother was lying on the floor, covered in blood with a dagger in the middle of her chest. My father was no where to be found. I ran to the maid's room and she called the police. I was told to keep away from the room, it was terrible. I was interviewed about what I'd found, about both my parents, especially my father, about their relationship and I was just a nine year old girl! I couldn't comprehend what was happening and couldn't answer half of their questions.' She paused and sobbed a few times, trembling just at the memory. 'They suspected my father! I insisted that he couldn't have possibly killed my mother. Luckily, he was well respected and many people defended his honour but they still wouldn't let go of the idea that my father killed her. Then one of the policemen pointed out that there was more blood leading out of the house, it looked as though someone had been dragged out of the house by another. Then of course the search was on to find my father, he could have been seriously injured if not killed like my mother. Of course, being so young, I pinned my hopes on that… every night I would lie awake and dream that my father would burst through the door and take me away. By this time, they had taken me to the orphanage as I had no other living relatives. Of course, my father never came and finally the search was closed. They announced him dead, by the looks of the blood trails leading out of the house he had lost a lot of blood and he had not turned up at any hospitals. Without any medical treatment he would have surely died.' By this point Danielle's tears had dried up and she looked much calmer, however she still looked tentative as if Caspian was going to disappear at any moment. However, he looked at her with a mix of emotions; he could not imagine what she had been through. He now understood why she was so scared of losing anyone close to her, he wasn't sure if she would be able to survive another loss, he also understood how she was so scared of killing or being killed herself. The loss of her parents had left a huge scar on her, he wasn't sure whether she would ever be able to shake these fears, he pitied her for it, yet he was amazed that she was this strong.

'Why don't you join us on the raid, I need to rescue my professor, if you join me in rescuing him then accompany him out of the fort, that way you will ensure we are all safe but you won't have to kill anyone yourself. You will be in the least danger of any of us.' She nodded and he wrapped her up in his arms in a hug. He couldn't help but notice how well she fit into his arms; however she was too preoccupied with worrying about anyone getting killed.

* * *

'Absolutely not!' shouted Peter. 'There is no way I am letting her anywhere near the battlefield. What if she gets injured or worse killed! I can't lose you, so I can't let you go.' He had now walked to Danielle and was talking to her with his hands on both of her shoulders.

Danielle looked frantically at Caspian; the only thing that could override her fear of being killed herself was the fear of any of her friends being killed. She needed to be there to be sure that they would all return safely to her. She could not tell Peter this, he would surely be disgusted by her cowardice, especially here in Narnia where he wasn't really Peter anymore, he was High King Peter. She wasn't even sure why she had told Caspian, she supposed she just needed someone to understand.

'I think she should go. That way I wouldn't be distracted making sure that my professor definitely escaped the castle. Also, this way she and my professor will be able to go get us horses so that we can escape more quickly.' Caspian quickly improvised, nodding at Danielle, acknowledging that she needed the help to persuade Peter.

'No, that's my final answer' Peter replied, folding his arms.

'Peter, please… I need to be there, I will be out of the danger, I just need to be sure that everyone is alright… please Pete, I am begging you' she begged him but he just shook his head at her as though that settled matters. She gave him a steely, determined glance and stormed out of the room; Caspian looked between Peter and Danielle and then followed her out of the room leaving Peter alone.

'You know I've never seen her look that determined before' said Ed, making Peter jump. Pete had forgotten that he had been having a conversation with Ed before Caspian and Danny had entered the room together, which had made him slightly curious as no one seen either of them for the last couple of hours. When they had started their conversation Ed had moved back into the corner so that he could sit down.

'I don't think you'll be able to stop her from going, you know' Ed continued.

'What do you mean?' asked Peter, his eyebrows knitting together in confusion.

'Well, usually she seems to do whatever everyone else wants, she usually only wants to please others and never really thinks for herself, she always waits for someone to tell her what to do. But just then… she seemed absolutely terrified at the prospect of being left behind. I think you should maybe just let her go.' Ed explained.

'Ed!! You're her best friend; you should be siding with me! I want her out of danger so that she won't get hurt, I mean I know she can fight well but I just don't want her out there.' Pete said, his voice rising in anger. No one seemed to understand him at the moment; the root of all of his troubles seemed to be Caspian.

'I want her safe too, but I'm not sure you saw how scared she looked when you said no, you were too busy glaring at Caspian. I have never seen her look as scared and don't you think you should do what's best for her. Besides by the way she looked when she left, even if you didn't let her go, she would find a way to be there. Don't you think it would be best if you just let her go, we'll get another griffin that can fly her in with us? She'll go with Caspian to find his professor and then she will escape with the professor. If she really must she can defend herself, you saw how much of a fight she put up in battle against me. If you don't let her go then she will most likely smuggle herself in with all the soldiers, in the thick of the battle' Peter looked as though he were having an inner struggle but Ed's words made sense. She would be in a lot less danger if he just let her go with them.

'Fine, but I don't like this at all' Pete grumbled.

'You don't have to, but we are all in danger no matter where we are at the moment. I'm sure it will only get worse, the longer we stay in Narnia. So get used to the fact that Danny will be in danger.' Ed said, finalising their conversation and leaving Peter stood, grumbling at the turn of events.

* * *

'I just don't want to lose you' Peter whispered, pressing his forehead against Danny's. He had told her the news that he was allowing her to come. He was rather disappointed that she didn't appear pleased. Of course, she wasn't, she was terrified of losing anyone and she would be useless to be able to defend herself, she couldn't harm anyone. She hadn't told Peter this, she was very doubtful that he would have let her go if he knew that she was defenceless.

'I wouldn't be going if I wasn't terrified of losing you, or Ed, or Susan' she said then added as an afterthought 'or Caspian'.

'What were you and Caspian doing this afternoon?' Peter asked, trying to sound nonchalant but not quite managing it. They only had about one and a half hours before the raid on the castle began.

'We just talked, he understands so much. He's a good listener and we have some things in common. He's a good friend.' Danny smiled at the thought of their conversations that afternoon. After she had finished crying they had continued to talk and get to know each other before they went off in search of Peter to ask him about Danielle being able to go on the raid. They had discovered so much about each other and they hadn't even realised where the time had gone.

Peter frowned; about to say something more on the subject, he didn't look best pleased. That was when Reepicheep had entered the room,

'Please, sire, your presence is required in the main hall. There are some finalisations of the plans that Glenstorm wishes to run past you again' Reepicheep said with a low bow to the both of them and then disappeared.

Pete kissed her on the forehead and then said softly 'I will come to see you before the raid, I promise' and with that he followed after Reepicheep.

Danny sighed and thought about what she was about to do. She was alone and everything was so quiet; the calm before the storm. She couldn't do this, she just couldn't… but she had to, for her friends, she could not allow them to die, she had to be there to make sure they were safe. Everything was going to be fine; everything was going to be fine, wasn't it?


	8. Make or Break

**Sorry it has been so long since I updated, been really busy with GCSE's and a wedding. On the bright side, I'm back now! Please review!**

**Also if you like Pirates of the Caribbean check out my James Norrington one-shot!**

**Disclaimer: Don't own anything (except Danielle)**

Chapter 8: Make or Break

Peter came back to find her but they only had minutes before they had to leave. Danny wasn't too bothered by this; she was busy with thoughts of what was to come. He held her tight but then released her, they didn't exchange a word, they both knew the dangers of this night and couldn't find any appropriate words.

Peter led Danny by the hand outside to where the griffins were waiting. An hour earlier the rest of the army had set off for Miraz's castle. They would wait outside the castle to wait for the word when they were to storm the castle. Peter kissed Danny on the forehead and made sure that she was safely with a griffin before he headed off to his own. On one side of Danny was Susan. Behind Susan was Peter, Trumpkin then Ed. Susan looked flustered and was checking over her bow and arrows. On the other side of Danny was Caspian. She hadn't realised until that moment that he had been watching her. He was dying to walk over and envelope her in a hug; however he restrained himself and settled with just nodding at her and giving her a half-hearted smile. He was more concerned for her life than he was for his own. This innocent girl who had confided in him, this castle could either make or break her fear of death, he feared for her.

The griffin beside Danny hovered above her and gripped her arms tightly with its talons. The rest of the party did the same and they soared off into the cold night. Danny attempted to look down at the ground below them, but she had no idea where they were and the fog that was rolling in made it doubly difficult. Ed's griffin soared past swiftly; Ed looked over and smiled at her as he went past. Ed was to take out the guard tower so that the guards couldn't send a signal that they were coming. From that tower Ed could also signal the rest of the troops with the torch he had. As they came closer to their destination, Danny couldn't help but think that it was going to be a very long night and that so many things could go wrong. She tried to relax and just focus on the fabulous feeling that she was flying; it felt like she was floating, but she was too tense to completely ignore the fear that was growing within her.

Danny didn't see Ed take out the guard on the top of the tower, her and the others were all preparing to land in a different part of the castle. However, it would not have helped her at all if she had seen Ed; she would have been terrified for his life. With Ed's signal the rest of the griffins picked up speed and swooped down to the castle. With that signal she also knew that the troops would now be approaching the castle on foot.

Caspian's griffin dived towards the turrets of the castles first and Caspian took out a guard. The other griffins followed suit just slightly behind. Danny held her sword loosely in her hand, dreading the fact that she may have to use it. As they descended on the castle the men took out more guards before they could raise an alarm and Susan began shooting her signature arrows. Danny was then dropped on to solid stone near to the top of one of the turrets, slightly behind Susan and Peter with Caspian and Trumpkin landing lightly behind. The other four were extremely alert and had their weapons at the ready. As she looked over the side of the wall she could see some of the troops on foot moving deftly through the shadows of the outside of the castle, taking out guards as they went.

By the time she had looked back at her four companions, they had already tied and lowered a rope over the side and down the wall towards the window that Caspian knew was the room of his beloved Professor. The one that Danny would then accompany to get horses for the rest of the group and then ride safely back to Aslan's How. She had been lectured by both Peter and Caspian on the fact that this was all she was to do, they were protective and worried for her safety but they had gotten to the point where she could predict what they were going to say before they said it, their lectures had got rather repetitive.

Caspian slid down the rope first, closely followed by Peter. She looked over the side and waited until Peter was at the bottom. She watched Caspian knock on the window and then open it and walk inside. She then slid clumsily down the rope and Peter watched her closely to make sure she got to the bottom safely and grabbed her hand to help her on to the landing as she stumbled into his arms. Of course, Susan showed her up beautifully as she slid gracefully down and landed lithely on her feet.

She entered the room behind Peter and looked around. The place was covered in dust and obviously hadn't been in use for at least a week. Caspian leant over a table and picked up some glasses, Danny's stomach dropped. That wasn't a good sign.

'We have to find him.' Caspian said solemnly, breaking the silence in which their attack had gone on in so far.

'You don't have time, you need to get the gate open' Peter said in a whisper, he was genuinely sorry but Danny still looked at him with a glare. The professor obviously meant a lot to Caspian and she doubted that he would leave without him.

'You wouldn't even be here without him and either would I' Caspian retorted. Peter glanced over at Danny for help at this point but she was still giving him a disapproving stare. He then looked at Susan.

'You and I could deal with Miraz' Susan said reluctantly, she was giving her own disapproving stare but instead to Caspian.

'And I can still get to the gate in time' Caspian insisted but did not wait for a reply but headed for the door, grabbing Danny's hand to pull her along with him. Danny glanced back at Peter and Susan as she left the room. Peter did not look best pleased, he was worried for the plan but he also distinctly glanced at the hand of Danny's that Caspian now had securely in his own. Trumpkin followed the two out of the room but headed in a different direction to go help Reepicheep.

Caspian led the way down to the dungeons, the most likely place for Miraz to keep his professor. However, all of the time he never let go of Danielle's hand but seemed to find comfort with it, in his panic for his professor. However, he eventually let go to knock out two guards that were guarding the stairs. He would normally have killed them as it would have been swifter, but for Danielle's sake he refrained. He descended the stairs swiftly and let out a sigh of relief as his Professor came into sight in one of cells, curled up asleep on the stone floor.

Caspian rushed over to the cell and rattled the bars in an attempt to open them. Danielle appeared over his shoulder with a large loop of keys, swiped from the belt of one of the guards. Caspian felt rather stupid at having overlooked that and smiled gratefully. He fumbled with the keys, finally managed to open the cell and then hurriedly shook his professor awake. Danielle, not wanting to intrude, stood quietly outside of the cell.

'Five more minutes?' Caspian whispered to his professor as he began to wake up.

'What are you doing here? I didn't help you escape just so you could break back in. You have to get out before Miraz learns you're here.' Although the professor came across as slightly irritated to see Caspian, Danny knew that this was only out of concern.

However, Caspian wasn't fazed by his irritable mentor and rather arrogantly proclaimed, 'He's going to learn soon enough. We are giving him your cell'. During this he had managed to find the correct key to free the professor of his shackles and was helping the elderly man to his feet. The man groaned as he rose but still managed to fix Caspian with a disapproving stare, despite the obvious fact that he was going to gain his freedom.

'Don't underestimate Miraz as your father did' the man warned. Danny glanced into the cell at this. What was that supposed to mean? Whatever it meant, Caspian clearly understood by the look on his face yet still felt the need to clarify in the hope that he was mistaken.

'What are you talking about?' he whispered, making it sound more menacing than an actual question.

'I'm sorry' the elderly man lowered his head, looking rather ashamed. With this Caspian looked horrified and immediately fled the room. He didn't even glance in Danielle's direction and this scared her.

Danielle wasn't sure what to say, she had never been introduced to this man and she had obviously just witnessed a rather private moment. The professor looked at her and gave her a small, sad smile.

'Hello, my dear, I am Professor Cornelius. I am afraid Caspian would have introduced us but I'm afraid he has not taken some news very well.'

'I'm Danielle.' She then proceeded quickly to tell the Professor that she was here with Narnians in an attempt to raid the castle. She also filled him in on the fact that they were supposed to get some horses for them and the others to escape quickly. 'Peter and Susan are going to sort out Miraz and Caspian will open the gate to let in the troops so we need to meet them out in the courtyard' she finished.

'Somehow, I do not think that will be going to plan. I think Caspian will want to sort out Miraz himself. I do hope he doesn't do something too irrational. He can let his temper get out of hand but he has a good heart, I do worry for him sometimes' by this point Danielle was helping the stiff man up the stairs, back to the main castle.

Danielle just settles on a confused look, not really understanding what was happening but too polite to ask outright, although she was nearly dying with curiosity. The professor kindly explained, 'I'm afraid I should have told Caspian earlier. His father was killed by Miraz. Miraz is a power-hungry tyrant and killed his own brother to get the thrown. I don't think there is ever a correct time to learn that your father was murdered by the person who raised you.' Danielle gasped at this revelation and felt truly sorry for Caspian; she knew exactly how he felt. However, she hoped that he would not turn to revenge, that was never the answer.

Once they were in the main castle they fell silent, not wanting to attract the attention of any guards. Down the corridor, she spotted two guards pacing. However, in the distance a bell began to toll and shouts began outside. At this noise the one of the guards hurried off, leaving the entrance to the stable almost clear. The professor had no weapon and so Danielle was left with no choice. She walked out into the corridor in plain view with her sword gripped tightly in her hand. The guard came running at her and instinct of the training her father had given her took over. He swung his sword at her, aiming to take off her head. She ducked and swung the sword into his side, injuring but not killing him. She was too preoccupied with the large sword in his hand to notice the smaller dagger in his other hand. He swung that round at her slashing into her side. At first she felt nothing but then cried out in pain as the blinding pain finally registered after the shock. She could feel the blood trickling down her side but she forced herself to focus on staying alive. The wound was deep but was not fatal. She dodged another few lunges from the large sword and finally found the opportune moment and stabbed the guard fully in the stomach before pulling her sword back out. He fell backwards on to the floor in a heap and remained still.

She stood still in complete shock; her sword was shaking frantically in her hand. The professor approached behind her and placed a comforting hand on her shoulder, obviously realising that it was her first kill. He then placed an arm around her to comfort her and then leaned down to examine the wound but before he could examine it closely Danny winced away and took a few steps back. The professor recognised the fear plain on her face and so did not push her to let him examine the wound but accepted her decision. He finally said 'It looks like a clean cut wound from what I can see. It will be painful and may need to be stitched but should heal with minimum scarring. Can you walk normally? Will you still be able to ride a horse?' He waited as she moved around slightly, testing the pain in her stomach to see if she could bear to ride a horse. The wound was deep yet the adrenalin coursing through her body seemed to dull the pain to a numb throb. Her body seemed to realise that it's energy was need for escaping. Danny simply nodded in response to the professor's question.

'Come, we must get these horses.' He responded to this, guiding her along with a gentle hand on her back.

The two of them snuck into the stable and grabbed a number of horses. The sounds of a battle reached them from outside, the clashing of swords sounded. It seemed Caspian had reached the gate in time and opened it for the Narnian troops, maybe there was hope after all.

They sneaked through the corridors, as quietly as they could avoiding the attention of anyone. They reached the courtyard where chaos had erupted. The bodies of both Narnians and Telmarines were littered around. That was when Danny heard the shouts of Peter 'Fall back! Retreat!' So things were going so well after all.

Caspian ran up to them and jumped on the back of one horse, pulling Danielle by the hand so that she was seated behind him. The professor clambered on to another horse and Caspian had hold of another horse for Peter as Susan had already escaped the battle ground on the back of Glenstorm.

Caspian quickly galloped the horses over to Peter, quickly glancing up behind him. Danny followed his line of sight to see two men, one of them obviously Miraz. So Caspian hadn't chosen revenge after all. Miraz was now shooting arrows at the minotaur who was the only thing that was keeping the gate open, keeping them from certain death. Danny leaned into Caspian's back to make herself smaller and less of a likely target for arrows.

Peter jumped on the horse and they all escaped through the gate just before the minotaur collapsed. Caspian and the professor jumped their horses over the drawbridge quickly before it had time to shut. However, Peter had stopped his horse and was staring back at the Narnians who were trapped inside the castle, awaiting death.

'Peter!' Danny shouted at him. He needed to get across the drawbridge too before he would join the Narnians in death. He glanced at her, his eyes filled with sorrow. He only just managed to jump the gap.

Danny looked back at the Narnians. They were all going to die fighting for their freedom. They were unbelievably brave and Danny couldn't believe all that had happened tonight. She looked up to see Ed swooping low on the back of a griffin. The relief that all of the Pevensie's and Caspian had survived and that she had killed a living being overwhelmed her. She couldn't take any more, she was aware of the fact that she making his shirt very wet and that Peter was giving Caspian jealous looks, yet she buried her face into Caspian's chest and cried.


	9. Thrown Off Balance

**Due to the fact that I hadn't updated in so long, I started this chapter straight away so that I would post it as soon as possible! This is a longer chapter as well, so enjoy. As usual, please review! **

**To all the Peter lovers reading the story, he kinda turns into a bad person in this chapter, but he gets nicer again, promise!**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing, except Danny.**

Chapter 9: Thrown Off Balance

The journey home was almost silent. The sorrow and grief of those companions whom they had lost weighed heavily on the shoulders of the remaining. Any who dared to break this silence soon fell quiet due to the fact that they could be heard by the rest of the group unless whispering in someone's ear. Quite soon after they had gotten a good distance from the Telmarine fort, Ed had joined the rest of the group on foot and had been given a horse to ride.

Danny had eventually stopped crying and had fallen asleep against Caspian. She woke to see Caspian twisted in the saddle gazing down at her and gently stroking her hair. He got down off the saddle and then gave her his hand to help her down. They then walked beside the horse for a while, stiff from riding for so long.

'Are you alright?' he whispered at her to avoid anyone else overhearing their conversation. He was so close that she could actually feel his breath against her. 'The professor has told me what happened… about the guard'

She looked down, ashamed. 'I didn't want to kill him… I had no choice he would have killed me', her eyes filled with tears once more at this.

Caspian wrapped an arm around her and hugged her to his body. 'I think none the less of you. That was a brave thing you did. I have no doubt that he would have killed both you and the professor. Especially judging by that wound, the professor said it was deep but that does not look healthy in the slightest.'

Danny pulled back from Caspian with a blush. The dagger had cut through her shirt and exposed part of her side. She was not comfortable with Caspian gazing upon her like he was, despite the fact that he was just worried about her health right now. She was surprised that the wound was still not causing her much pain. She lowered her hand towards her stomach and touched it lightly. She couldn't even feel much around her stomach. Caspian just watched concerned, he did not wish pain on her but this lack of pain was not normal. However, he was broken out of his reverie when Peter approached. Caspian then respectfully backed away from the two with a pat on the shoulder to Danielle before he left to go to the front, to give them privacy. Peter glared at Caspian's back as he left.

Danny smiled weakly at Peter. 'Are you alright?' he asked staring at her wound openly despite Danny's obvious embarrassment. Danny took a step back from him but was sudden hit by a spell of dizziness and had to grab the horse's side to keep her balance.

'I'm fine' she replied curtly, pulling her shirt together as best she could to cover herself. Peter got the message and nodded. 'Well, I'm glad you're okay' he replied. They then fell into an awkward silence and continued without another word to each other. The silence was only broken by the occasional mutter from Peter who was grumbling to himself with the distinct theme of choice curse words and the name 'Caspian', all of which Danny pretended not to hear. She was also preoccupied with keeping her balance which was becoming increasingly difficult and she was now relying on the horse to support her and keep her walking. She was also lost in her own thoughts of how Peter had changed so much and how much things had changed between them.

* * *

They eventually arrived back at the How to find the rest of the Narnians that had stayed behind, and Lucy waiting for them. Peter left Danny's side and led the way towards the How with Caspian next to him.

'What happened?' Lucy asked desperately searching the faces of those returning, the very few that had returned at all.

'Ask him' Peter said stonily.

'Peter…' Susan warned softly.

'Me? You could have called it off, there was still time' Caspian retorted, the colour slowly rising in his face as his anger built.

'No. There wasn't thanks to you. If you'd kept to the plan, those soldiers might be alive right now' Peter argued.

'And if you'd just stayed here like I'd suggested they definitely would be' Caspian shouted. They had now turned so that they were stood face to face. The rest of the Narnians stood in silence, watching the fight of their two leaders. Danny tried to move forward to try and stop them but her dizziness would not allow her that movement and so she was forced to remain where she was. To add to her problems, she was becoming very nauseous.

'You called _us_ remember?'

'My first mistake.' These words from Caspian stung deep within Danielle, cutting even deeper than the wound in her side. She didn't exactly know why. She had become close to Caspian over the time she had spent here and so it hurt to think that he thought of her being here as a mistake. With that statement he glanced over at her slightly, trying to communicate with her that he did not count her in that statement, he had just had enough of Peter. However, she was too lost in her own thoughts to notice. Peter, on the other hand, did notice Caspian's attempt at communication and this just increased his anger towards Caspian.

'No! You're first mistake was thinking you could lead these people' Peter shouted trying to insult Caspian as best he could.

'Hey! I am not the one who abandoned Narnia' Caspian was trying to accomplish exactly the same thing.

'You invaded Narnia. You have no more right leading than Miraz does…you, him… your father!' At this, Danny's head shot up to glare at Peter. Peter knew nothing of Caspian's family and this was a very low blow. She knew that Caspian would rise to this, he could put up with Peter insulting him, but he would hear nothing against his father. Danielle pushed herself forward to stand directly in between the two men.

'Peter, you have no right to say that!' she shouted in his face, absolutely furious that he would say something like that. She had been in Caspian's place in the past and Peter was out of line. He was changing faster than she could cope with and she hated who he was becoming; an arrogant, self-centred, spoiled king.

'_You_ have no right to speak to the High King of Narnia that way!' Peter shouted and with this he slapped her. The force of it snapped her neck back and she lost her balance and crumpled to the floor. 'You need to learn your place here!' Peter snarled, staring down at her. He had not intended to take his anger out on her but the moment she sided with Caspian in this argument, he knew he had lost her and she had chosen Caspian. He wanted to hurt her as much as she was hurting him.

Danielle was clutching her cheek in shock that Peter had actually struck her. Caspian reached down and pulled her to her feet against him. Again, she lost balance and would have fallen had Caspian not caught her and kept her against his chest. He looked down at her in extreme concern. She was hot yet unnaturally dry to the touch. He recognised these symptoms but could not for the life of him remember what they were of.

'Narnia's better off without the lot of you' Peter shouted back at Caspian, seeing the two together.

This was the last straw for Caspian and he gently set Danielle down, so that she could lean against a stone pillar. He then gave a loud yell and drew his sword and so did Peter. The two would most likely have started duelling had they not been stopped. Danny was horrified by this, yet was powerless to stop them.

'Stop it!' Ed shouted, accomplishing was Danny had failed to do and the two stopped in their tracks.

They both looked over towards Edmund to see Glenstorm carrying a very still Trumpkin. He was either seriously injured or already dead. They both lowered their swords and Ed helped to lower Trumpkin to the ground. Lucy ran over, pulling out her healing potion, ready to help her 'dear little friend'.

Caspian took one last look at the scene, sheathed his sword and disappeared into the How, shortly followed by Nikabrik. Danny watched on as Lucy healed Trumpkin and he blinked his eyes and awoke. Once they were all sure that he was well again, everyone began to disappear into the How for some rest.

Danny struggled into the How and searched the maze of rooms for Caspian. She found him in a far off room where he had finally settled after he had stormed into the How. He did not see her as she entered the room as he had his head buried in his hands as he sat on the floor, leaning against the wall. He only looked up when Danielle lowered herself carefully beside him.

'I'm so sorry about Peter. He had no right to talk about your father that way' she said quietly.

'I should not have lost my temper. Peter is right, I am not fit to lead these people, who am I kidding? If I lose my temper at something as trivial as that, how can I ever expect anyone to respect me? I don't even respect myself right now.' Caspian despaired. Danny wiggled closer to Caspian and rested her head on his shoulder and closed her eyes.

'You are a wonderful leader, it is just that you are under a lot of pressure right now and Peter handled the whole situation wrong. He took none of the responsibility and insulted your father. I don't know what has gotten into him. He was so different back home, he was kind and thoughtful… he was one of my best friends. But here… Here, I don't know who he is. I've lost him, Caspian' she looked up at him to find him gazing intently at her.

'Well, that is his loss. He has lost a precious jewel. His loss is my gain' Caspian began stroking Danny's hair gently; she smiled and leaned into his touch. Then she felt a pang of guilt and her thoughts immediately went to Peter. She gave Caspian a sad smile and tried to brace herself against the wall so that she could rise. Caspian sprang up and pulled her gently to her feet.

'You really need that wound looking at; there is something wrong with it. You need to get a centaur to look at it, you need healing' he said gently. For the first time in a while Caspian took a long look into her eyes. Her pupils were dilated. This was enough to jog Caspian's memory.

He remembered a couple of years ago; visiting the dungeons with his uncle. A prisoner was curled up in a cell. His uncle had explained that the prisoner had been cut with a Telmarine blade that had been treated in a special Telmarine-made poison. It worked its way into the blood stream and slowly worked its way around the body, making everything numb to the victim, shutting down the body. Once it found its way to the heart, the victim would die. It was a slow, painful way to go. Caspian had gazed at the prisoner and Caspian could not see anything visibly wrong with him except a blade wound on his arm, nothing fatal and his pupils were dilated. The deadly poison was a mixture of the deadly nightshade plant, jimsonweed and mandrake.

Caspian gasped in realisation at what was happening to Danielle. She would die if he did not do something, who knew how far the poison already was around the blood stream.

'What?' asked Danny, wondering why Caspian had been staring at her open-mouthed for over a minute now.

'We need to find Lucy. You have been poisoned through that wound. I would bet anything the poison was on the blade. If we do not heal you now, then you will die. We'll get you to Lucy and she'll heal you and everything will be alright again' he seemed to be reassuring himself just as much as he was to Danny.

They searched for Lucy and finally were led to her by Glenstorm and they found her talking with Trumpkin in a room just off the main hall. They explained the situation and Lucy immediately opened her juice for Danny.

'No!' shouted Glenstorm. 'Whatever you do, you must not drink that!'

'If she doesn't she will die' Caspian countered.

'If she drinks that then you will seal her fate' Glenstorm added mysteriously.

'Of course' Lucy gasped, realising what he meant. 'My potion only heals physical wounds; if she drinks this then it will heal the wound, sealing the poison inside her body.'

'Before she can be healed by Lucy's potion, she needs to be given an antidote' Glenstorm added.

Caspian wracked his brain trying to remember what the antidote was. He remembered his uncle bragging of how there was an antidote and how it was easily available but how they would deny the prisoner of this and allow him to die slowly. Caspian was much younger and innocent and had known no better. He just assumed that the prisoner must have committed some dreadful atrocity but now he knew his uncle better, the poor man probably did nothing at all.

'Here, take these. In this pack there are some commonly used herbs in healing and a few additional ingredients. You need to remember what the antidote is and hope that the ingredients are all in here. If not, I fear for her life' Glenstorm whispered to Caspian so that Danny would not hear, as he handed him a large bundle.

Caspian led Danny back to the room they had been in before. He needed quiet to think. He looked through the assortment of herbs and ingredients available to him. His conversation with his uncle was returning in dribs and drabs. He knew he needed certain ingredients and he needed to administer them to the victim in a certain order. There were several ingredients missing but he hoped that the antidote would work without every single one of them. He began preparing the different parts of the antidote so that he could give them all to Danny quickly.

Danny sat in silence, watching Caspian work. The chances are he wasn't going to find the antidote in time and she was going to die. For some strange reason she was happy to die in here, in his company. She would have liked to reconcile with Peter though. Caspian was muttering various things to himself under his breath, ingredients like 'Calabar bean'.

Finally, Caspian turned to her. 'I really hope this works' he said breathlessly.

'You are really good at inspiring confidence in your work' said Danny sarcastically.

'Very funny' he joked, then turned very serious again. 'These need to be taken in a certain order. Normally, they would be swallowed and eventually be digested, but we don't have time for that anymore. I've added a few extra harmless ingredients to thicken them, to turn them into a salve. They need to be put in to your wound so that they enter the blood stream fast.' Danny just nodded. She was confused when Caspian suddenly blushed, turning very red. 'I'm going to need direct and clear access to your wound so that I can work fast… You're going to need to remove your shirt' He said this as quickly as possible, as if saying it faster would make it any easier.

'But… I… can't we… isn't there another way?' stammered Danny nervously.

'Danielle, we don't have time for anything else' said Caspian firmly. She thought for a moment and finally resigned herself. She turned around so that she had her back to Caspian and slowly removed her shirt, trying not to stretch her wound too much in the process. She then turned around and lay down on the sleeping mat that Caspian had brought through from the main hall.

Caspian tried not to stare and to look preoccupied with continuing to mix the antidote but he couldn't help but sneak a look at her from the corner of his eye. She lay there uncomfortably, bare from the waist up except for her undergarments. Her body was perfect; her stomach was flat and pale and unblemished except for her wound. Her body was curved perfectly and it took all of Caspian's self-control not to reach out to caress her body; he had grown used to reaching out and touching her hair or cheek in an affectionate way over the last few days but he knew doing this now would overstep unspoken boundaries.

He knelt beside her and warned her that it was going to hurt. He applied the salves one at a time, in what he hoped was the correct order. He would die inside if he killed Danielle now. Once he had finished doing this he wrapped her stomach in bandages. They would keep the salves in the wound so they would not rub off on her clothing. He would have to leave the wound open overnight and come morning, the antidote should have had enough time to work and he could get Lucy to heal the wound; that is if Danny was not showing anymore symptoms of poisoning and only if she survived the night.

Caspian then left to get her a clean shirt and returned hurriedly. She was beginning to get up and was stretching slightly. The wound felt better with the pressure of the bandage on it. Danny looked down and studied her hands intently, avoiding Caspian's eyes.

'Danielle, please look at me. If I had not done that then you would have died. Don't you trust me?' Caspian asked, it hurt him that she was upset by this.

'Of course I trust you, it's just… I… Peter.' She finally said. She trusted Caspian completely yet she had caught him looking at her body and she was strangely pleased. She was scared of what she was feeling, she had Peter, she shouldn't want Caspian looking at her! She was so confused and was even more confused by the look of sorrow that graced Caspian's face.

'You confuse me deeply Danielle. You seem to enjoy being with me and seem to be happy, you give me hope. Yet at times like now, you make me feel second best again. When you make up your mind of what you want, come find me' he said, anger starting to creep into his voice towards the end and he swiftly left the room. This only confused Danielle further, what had he meant by all of that? She buried her face in her hands and cried.

She was disturbed from her confusion and weeping a while later as Edmund ran into the room. 'Danny, have you seen Caspian? He hasn't been seen and Nikabrik has disappeared also. Whatever Nikabrik is up to, it can't be good'

Danny stood up quickly. 'No, Caspian was with me but he left a while ago. I haven't seen him since.' Edmund quickly ran out of the room resuming his search and Danny ran after him. Her wound stung with pain but it was feeling better than before and she was worried about Caspian.

'Edmund! The hall of the stone table!' Peter shouted from a distance away and Edmund and Danny sprinted towards the sound.

'Stop!' shouted Peter as he ran into the hall. Danny came to a sudden halt at the sight that was before her. Caspian was accompanied by a werewolf, a hag and Nikabrik. A circle had been drawn in the dirt around him and his hand had been cut. As if that wasn't bad enough, a great sheet of ice had formed between the two pillars behind the stone table and in that sheet of ice was the image of the White Witch. Danny recognised her from the drawings in the How. From the stories the Pevensies had told her, this situation did not look good, she was obviously trying to be revived. Caspian was reaching out his hand towards the White Witch; if he touched her then she would return.

'Caspian! No!' she shouted at him, but he appeared to be in a trance, he did not respond to her.

Peter, Edmund and Trumpkin drew their swords and the werewolf charged towards them. Danny also drew her sword that she had kept in her sheath since the attack on Miraz's castle. The werewolf leapt at Edmund and knocked him over. Meanwhile, the hag had moved forward to fight Peter and Trumpkin was battling Nikabrik. Peter had been thrown to the ground but had knocked out the hag. Lucy had also joined the battle and had saved Trumpkin but Nikabrik had grabbed Lucy in the process. Trumpkin took the opportunity whilst Nikabrik's back was turned to save Lucy and stab Nikabrik through the back.

Ed had succeeded in wounding the werewolf in the side. Danny moved forward to help him and the werewolf snarled at her. Danny dodged a swipe from his paw and managed to wound him yet again. However, the wolf swiped at her again and this time caught her arm. 'Danny!' cried Ed. He managed to stab the werewolf and it howled loudly as it knew it was dieing.

Caspian almost broke out of his trance as he heard Danny's name being called. He looked over to see her fighting alongside Edmund but the White Witch continued to whisper in his ear.

'Come on, just reach out a bit further and I will join your world. I will return and you can have Danielle at your side. You want her and she can be yours for the rest of eternity' she encouraged.

'Get away from him' shouted Peter as he knocked Caspian out of the circle, pointing his sword at the enchantress.

The witch smiled pleasantly down at Peter. 'Peter, dear. I've missed you. Come, just one drop. You know you can't do this alone' she said sweetly. Peter glanced quickly at Danielle who stood next to Edmund. She wasn't watching him; she was looking to his left. He followed her gaze until it came to Caspian who was gazing back at her with an apologetic grimace. This made Peter's blood boil.

'Aaaah, you want the girl of your dreams. Just one drop of blood Peter and she can be yours. Narnia will no longer need the Telmarine and he can return to where he came from. You will be praised for saving Narnia and she will admire you and forget all about him. Just come a bit closer' the witch now had Peter under her spell and his eyes glazed over. He began to edge towards her.

Suddenly, a sword appeared through the middle of the witch's waist and she gasped. Peter looks confused as the ice began to fracture. The ice shattered and the witch disappeared, revealing Ed stood behind the ice, sword still raised.

'I know you had it sorted' was all he said angrily before he turned and left. Peter had yet to show any gratitude towards his brother.

Caspian had moved forward to stand beside Peter as the events had unfolded. They both turned when they heard Susan huff in anger at both of their stupidity and stormed off. Both of their eyes then came to rest on Danielle. Danny looked hesitantly between the two of them and then dropped her gaze. Both boys looked at the floor ashamed that they had almost brought a great evil back to Narnia because of their own selfish thoughts.

Peter looked back up to see Danny gazing at Caspian obviously struggling to find the words to say something to him. Rather than confront them both, the anger boiled inside him and he too stormed out of the hall.

Caspian and Danielle were left alone yet again. Caspian was the first to break the silence with, 'I can't believe I was stupid enough to fall for that. I almost brought back the most evil person in the history of Narnia. I shouldn't be trusted'

'Don't you dare say that. These people trust you with their lives, you saved my life. You are one of the most trustworthy people I know. It was just one moment of weakness and that was the most powerful enchantress Narnia has ever known. How were you supposed to resist her magic? There was nothing you could do; it is not your fault. If anything it is mine, if I hadn't made you angry, none of this would have happened.' Danielle said solemnly.

'It is no ones fault but mine but thank you for your words. I must take responsibility for my own actions. However, I am glad that you are feeling better' he smiled kindly at her.

'Caspian… what I said earlier, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have… Peter…' Danielle had started gabbling.

'Shhhh, I should not have overreacted. We will talk in the morning but for now you need to rest. You should not have fought with that wound; you need to rest if the antidote is to work. You must be exhausted' he said as he wrapped an arm around her waist and began to walk her through the maze of passageways to a room that had a sleeping mat slightly raised from the ground and covered in sheets. As he was talking, Danielle could feel her energy levels dropping now that the adrenalin from the battle was gone. She hadn't slept since before the attack on the castle.

Danny had fallen asleep before Caspian had led her to the bed. He picked her up and smiled at her peaceful state of sleep. He laid her gently on the bed and pulled the sheets over her. He leaned down and kissed her softly on the forehead and smiled, just watching her for a while. She was exquisitely beautiful. He then grabbed a spare blanket and lay down on the floor next to the bed and got some sleep himself.


	10. What Are You Doing On the Floor?

**Sorry, damn GCSEs have kept me from writing and I may not be writing for some time after this as I will have my exams in the next few months and I need my spare time to write. However after June, I will have all the time in the world to write ****. Once again, please, please, please review! **

**Disclaimer: I own nothing, except Danny.**

Chapter 10: What are you doing on the floor?

Caspian could not sleep peacefully. He could not sleep fitfully, kept waking himself to check that Danny was alright. The sound of her constant breathing would lull him back into a half sleep. He needed the reassurance that she was ok and that, so far, his antidote had at least, not killed her.

He was awoken from his light sleep when he heard Danielle gasp suddenly. His eyes flew open, immediately thinking the worst, she was dying. He stared intently at her as he realised she had gasped in her sleep. She was perfectly fine; she was even murmuring slightly in her slumber. She looked so peaceful laid out there. Caspian's heart began to race as he heard her mutter 'Caspian' in her sleep. Maybe there was some hope for him after all, maybe he wouldn't come second place to Peter.

Danny gasped again and her eyes fluttered open. Her eyes immediately locked with Caspian's. She looked at him with an emotion that Caspian couldn't quite place and then she shook her head and seemed to realise that she was, in fact, awake. She looked down to see him curled on a rather uncomfortable sleeping mat on the hard floor.

'What are you doing on the floor?' she asked.

'Well, I was sleeping…' he replied.

'This is your bed, you should rest here. I'll swap with you' she said. She could tell from the bags under his eyes that he had had very little sleep.

'I will not hear of it. You have been injured and you need that bed more than me. Now go back to sleep. Your body needs the rest to heal' he whispered to her, stroking her hair gently.

'I don't feel right knowing that you are sleeping on the floor,' she paused for a moment, blushing scarlet at the thought of what she was about to propose. 'You could… you know… sleep next to me. There is plenty of room for both of us here… I mean, Narnia needs you healthy and rested.'

'I do not think that would be such a good idea…' he murmured.

'I didn't mean… I just thought you would be more comfortable' she stammered, not wanting him to misinterpret her suggestion, it was strictly platonic.

Caspian smiled at her. She couldn't help but return his smile, it was contagious. He just nodded in reply. She shifted over on the bed so that she took up less room. He slid on to the bed and pulled the cover over them both. She shifted a bit closer to him for the warmth as the large How was draughty. He wrapped an arm around her and pulled her tight against him. She led her head on his chest and soon fell fast asleep. Again, lulled by the steady rhythm of her breathing Caspian joined her, this time falling properly asleep.

* * *

Lucy dashed through the How dodging into different rooms looking for any sign of Caspian or Danny. She ran down different corridors, desperate to find Danny to see if she was alright. She sincerely hoped that Caspian had managed to create an antidote.

She ran into a room, scanned the room and was fully prepared to carry on her way, like all the other rooms she had done in so far, but she skidded to a halt. A large grin spread across her face but there was a small amount of guilt inside. On the positive side, Danny was most definitely alive and had regained colour in her cheeks. Also, she could see that Danny's relationship with Caspian was growing stronger. She gazed at the pair, intertwined on the bed; Danny resting against Caspian's chest, both of his arms around her and his head resting against her head. Lucy was not stupid; she had seen glances and looks that the two shared, she was quite observant and perceptive and knew that the two cared deeply for each other. However, Lucy couldn't help but feel sorry for her brother. He cared for Danny, but lately he _had _been a bit of an idiot and he didn't seem to care for Danny as much as Caspian did.

Anyway, it was not really any of her business to interfere, that was where Lucy differed from Susan, she would most definitely have made it her business to interfere. Lucy was backing slowly out of the room, Danny was alright for now and she would return later. However, on the way out she stumbled slightly and this woke Danny.

Danny jumped at the sound and sat up. 'Lucy?' she asked rubbing sleep from her eyes. Danny looked at the young girl and saw her looking rather sheepish. A moment later Danny realised why as she saw Caspian begin to move, woken by her own movement. This would not look good.

Lucy saw panic in the eyes of Danny; she obviously feared that Lucy would run to tell Peter. Caspian just looked rather confused and as he started to wake, rather irritable that his time with Danny had been ruined.

'I just came to check that you were alright and whether it was time to heal the wound' Lucy smiled brightly at the pair, both trying to reassure them that she would not tell Peter and trying to ease the awkward situation.

Caspian needed to check the wound and so once again Danny had to remove her shirt whilst Lucy turned her back respectfully. Caspian unwound the bandages from Danny's slender body and confirmed that the antidote, by some miracle, seemed to have worked; the wound looked relatively clean and Danny was showing no signs of poisoning. Caspian took his turn to turn his back whilst Lucy dropped some of the potion on to the wound.

Caspian could not help but turn to look when Danny gasped loudly in awe. Caspian turned to see the wound on Danny's side completely gone, replaced by a faint puckered line that would forever be there to signify the wound that had once marked her smooth skin. Danny looked up and caught Caspian staring and he blushed and quickly turned to stare determinedly at the wall.

Lucy, now sure that Danny would be fine, slipped quietly out of the room to leave the pair alone. Caspian pulled out a spare shirt of his and handed it to Danny. Her old one was now torn and blood-stained. She slipped it on and although it was rather large, she loved the feel of it against her skin. Its smell was also comforting, I smelt of Caspian.

'I am glad you are okay. I don't know what I would have done if I had lost you' Caspian had turned now that Danny was fully clothed and took both her hands in his.

Typically, it was this point that Peter chose to barge in. Peter seeing the two of them hand in hand almost instantly looked furious. Caspian saw this and decided he better take his leave, before he made the situation worse. He left reluctantly with a quick 'I will come back in a while' whispered to Danny.

'I'm glad to see you're okay' Peter said stiffly, not sounding entirely sincere.

'Thank you. Lucy's potion worked wonders' Danny replied quietly, avoiding Peter's eyes.

'Lucy said Caspian healed you'

'Well, Caspian had to apply an antidote to the poison and then Lucy healed the wound with the potion'

'Yes, Glenstorm informed me of the poison. May I see?' Peter asked.

'It's in a rather inconvenient place, Pete. I'd have to remove my shirt, besides there isn't really much to see anymore.' She replied touching her side, feeling the ridge of her scar through her shirt.

This was definitely the wrong thing to say. 'You removed your shirt for Caspian?!' he shouted.

'Pete there was no other way; he had to administer the antidote.' Danny tried to explain but Peter was now beyond the point of listening.

'I'm sure that's what he would have you believe. Can't you see he is trying to take you away from me?' he roared at her.

'He's not as bad as you make him out to be. He is a good person and he means a lot to me. Can't you try to be civil at least?' she didn't expect the boys to become friends by any stretch of the imagination but she wanted Peter to accept her new friend.

'There you go, taking his side again. He can't be trusted. I will not lose you to him.' He now bellowed at her.

'Peter, what happened to you? You've changed so much… I want the old Peter back, the Peter who was sensible and gentle. The Peter who would never have dreamed of hitting me yesterday' she almost whispered these things at him, close to tears. He was not losing her, but she was losing him. She didn't know who he was anymore.

'Well, we can't always have what we want can we. I've obviously already lost you to him' Peter said quietly and stiffly. Her words had been a slap in the face to him and he quickly left the room, leaving Danny to her tears and thoughts.

* * *

Caspian returned a while later after discussing more plans with Glenstorm. By this time, Danny's tears had dried. She was left feeling slightly empty but a new determination filled her. She was going to have a purpose while she was here. She would learn how to fight. She was not just going to be the helpless damsel in distress. She was not going to continue feeling as useless as she felt right now.

Caspian came to sit beside her. 'Are you going to be okay?' he asked gently.

Danny nodded and gave him a weak smile. Caspian could read into this that Peter had said some hurtful things and they had upset her. She was going to try to forget them. Yet Caspian could tell that Danny had not yet given up on Peter. She was still clinging to the hope that the old Peter would return. He was going to do his most to keep her happy and make her forget the hurt.

'Is there anything I can do for you?' he asked.

'Yes, there is one thing… I want to learn to sword fight. Will you teach me?'


	11. Wanting to Forget

**Another chapter people, enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing, except Danny.**

Chapter 11: Wanting to Forget

Caspian took Danny to a larger room where they had plenty of room to begin training. He had taken her first to the place that was being used as an armoury for the Narnians. Danny had been equipped with a sword, shield and a few bits of armour, rather large though as it was hard to fit her as all of the armour was built for males.

Caspian took the training slowly teaching Danny first how to block, parry and defend herself from attack. He would leave the attacking part until she was better; defence was what she would mainly need to know.

Hours later, Danny was exhausted and still felt as helpless as she had felt at the beginning. Every time she almost got close to being able to defend herself against Caspian's attacks that she was meant to be defending against, he would step it up a level and attack with more skill, from different positions and at different speeds, trying to catch her out.

'I am never going to be able to do this' she groaned as she panted in exhaustion.

'Just concentrate, you have gotten a lot better just in the few hours we have been practising. It takes years of training to become exceptional, but you are doing extraordinarily well for the amount of time we have. Just try this one last attack and then we can rest for the day' Caspian smiled at her. Attempting to be encouraging but not entirely pulling it off.

'Fine' she retorted and resumed her defensive position.

Caspian swung his sword at her from the left and she stepped backwards to avoid it. He stepped towards her and swung again from the right, almost catching her, but she ducked to avoid it. Danny knew that Caspian would never injure her but it still scared her to see a blade come swinging at her like that. Caspian threw in a few extra swings and this time Danny blocked with her sword and managed to thrust the sword back.

However, Danny caught the mischievous look in Caspian's eye as he swung the sword towards her with more strength than he had ever done so far. Danny did not have the strength to knock Caspian's sword back and instead the swords clashed together with a resounding ring and remained locked together. Caspian swung the swords down together, effectively bringing Danny closer and very close to him.

He heard Danny's breathing hitch as she was brought directly to him. They were so close that Caspian could feel Danny's breath on his lips. He gazed into her eyes and his gaze flickered down to her lips and he subconsciously licked his own lips. She was so close to him and all he wanted to do was kiss away all of the pain that Peter had caused her.

He leaned forward when Danny suddenly took a step back, realisation of what he was about to do in her eyes.

'Danny, wait!' he called as she began to back away, both swords forgotten and dropped on the floor.

'Caspian, I can't!... Peter' was all she managed to say before she rushed from the room. She was still so confused. She cared for Caspian so much and could not bear to lose him. What about Peter though? Could she just leave him now, after all, he had hurt her? She wasn't even sure if he still cared for her at all. Then what would happen when she came to leave Narnia? She would have to leave Caspian and she wasn't sure if she could bear to do that.

She dodged through rooms searching for the main hall, she needed people around her. The noise would drown out her problems. She could forget about it all for a while. Maybe she just needed to see Peter, talk to him and either reconcile with him or break it off with him. She needed to make a decision soon and there was not an awful lot of point in putting it off. Her heart ached and her head was spinning, like the earth was moving too fast beneath her and she wanted to slow down but couldn't.

She dodged into the main hall and came grinding to a halt. All the air suddenly left her lungs and it was like she couldn't breathe. She gasped quietly and clutched at her heart. She still cared about Peter deeply and this caused her to not want to believe that was before her very eyes. Even though they had argued, she couldn't believe that Peter would sink so low, he was one of her best friends at the very least, how could he stand there so easily and betray her this way, hurt her this way.

In the corner of the room, Peter stood with a very pretty nymph. More and more Narnians had arrived since they had arrived at the How and this young nymph appeared to be one of them. Peter was talking animatedly whilst unashamedly stroking the side of her face, the other hand on the wall next to her head and leaning very close to her. Danny fled from the room when she saw Peter lean in and lightly kiss this Narnian on the lips.

In reality, Peter had no idea what he was doing. He hadn't meant to hurt Danny, he had no idea that she was there. He felt guilt heavily in his chest after he kissed the young nymph that had been ashamedly flirting with him all afternoon and had somehow drawn him away into the corner and he had been drawn into flirting back. The only reason he had kissed her was that it was a way of forgetting Danny for a small amount of time, feeling that at least someone cared for him, even if Danny didn't. After the kiss he walked away from the nymph; he still cared for Danny but he knew that he had to let her go. He had attempted to fight for her, he didn't want to let Danny go, but somehow his fighting **for **her had turned into him fighting **with** her. After, what he had done, he knew he didn't deserve her. He didn't think that Caspian deserved her either, but at least he would treat her right, and if he didn't then he would be waiting.

* * *

Danny ran and ran and tried to lose herself in the maze of hallways. She didn't want to think, she just wanted to run until it didn't hurt anymore. Somehow her feet took her to the room that she and Caspian had slept in the previous night, and Caspian was sat on the bed, packing his armour and sword.

Caspian immediately was by her side when he saw the steady stream of tears running down her face. He took her in his arms and led her to the bed and allowed her to cry against his shoulder. He got a gobbled and hiccupped version of the story; that made the anger rise in his chest. How could Peter do that to her?

He stroked her hair until the tears began to fade from her cheeks. He wiped the remaining tears away and they sat in silence as he continually stroked her hair. Eventually she fell asleep and he continued to sit there, stroking her hair and watching her sleep. He promised himself that he would never let her hurt this much again; he would be there to ensure that nothing would make this beautiful girl cry again.


	12. Finding a Purpose

**I got some rather nice reviews, so I decided what the hell; I'll write some more instead of revise. If I fail by GCSEs though, I'm gonna blame this!**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing, except Danny.**

Chapter 12: Finding a Purpose

Caspian sat alone on what once may have been a balcony but was now overgrown and was littered with rubble. The shadow he knew to be his professor emerged from the How.

'Why did you never tell me about my father?' he said in a hushed tone, conveying his pain to the man he thought he trusted.

'My mother was a black dwarf from the northern mountains. I risked my life all these years so that one day you might be a better King than those before you.' His professor replied.

'Then I have failed you.' Caspian bitterly retorted. Then again, he thought to himself, he couldn't be much worse than the current High King of Narnia, who went around hurting innocent girls.

'Everything I told you, everything I didn't, it was only because I believe in you. You have the chance to become the most noble contradiction in history. The Telmarine who saved Narnia.' His professor smiled proudly at him and Caspian couldn't help but smile back, it was contagious.

Peter gazed up at the image of Aslan, thinking of all the ways he had let him down. Was that the reason that Aslan has only shown himself to Lucy? Had Peter disappointed him? He began to get lost in the image, Lucy remaining silent after their conversation, obviously sensing Peter's inner turmoil.

Quite suddenly Ed burst in, panting from running and called, 'Pete you'd better come quickly!' He began to run again, this time with Peter in tow and Lucy running as fast as she could after her two elder brothers.

They arrived on the balcony that already held a number of their senior warriors, Susan, Caspian and his professor. The sight that greeted them made Peter reel. Legions of soldiers were beginning to march across the clearing towards the How. Other Narnians began to gather outside the How. All of the army wore masked faces, making the army seem even more sinister. They were going to need a miracle to save them now. They were going to need Aslan.

'Tights and kettledrums, that's your next big plan? Sending a little girl into the darkest parts of the forest alone?' exclaimed an outraged Trumpkin, who despite his own objections had obviously grown to care for Lucy.

'It's our only chance' replied Peter, who didn't like the plan any more than Trumpkin, however could find no other solution.

'And she won't be alone' Susan attempted to reassure him.

'Haven't enough of us died already?' Trumpkin sneered in return.

'Nikabrik was my friend too but he lost hope, Queen Lucy hasn't and neither have I' Trufflehunter said.

'For Aslan!' called Reepicheep, attempting to lift the spirits of everyone gathered, for everyone was rather gloomy at the prospect of the enormous army looming over their heads.

'For Aslan!' a bear also called. Peter nodded in thanks to him.

'Then I'm going with you!' Trumpkin claimed, electing himself as a protector of the two queens.

'No we need you here' Lucy knelt down by him, touched by his apparent concern.

'We have to hold them off until Lucy and Susan get back' Peter instructed, swinging back to planning mode.

'If I may, Miraz may be a tyrant and a murderer, but as King he is subject to the traditions and expectations of his people. There is one in particular that may buy us some time' Caspian thought aloud.

At that moment Danny entered the room. Danny had woken alone in Caspian's room. The room smelt of him, so she figured he couldn't have been gone for that long. She wandered through the corridors and was directed by a faun to the main chamber.

As she entered a few eyes flickered to her but none kept their gaze on her except two. Caspian and Peter both stared at her unashamedly. However, Peter noticed that she was looking back at Caspian and they were smiling gently at each other. She walked over and stood a few paces back from where Caspian stood and Caspian smirked slightly at this and looked overly pleased with himself. Only then did Danny return Peter's gaze and this one was most definitely not the one that she had shared with Caspian. This one was cold and full of anger and Peter was confused until Danny's gaze flickered slightly into the shadows in the corner of the room. He followed her gaze and felt his heart freeze when he saw the nymph he had been with yesterday lurking sulkily in the corner. She had not taken it well when he had told her that he couldn't continue with her. Peter attempted to regain Danny's gaze but she stubbornly looked at anyone and anything but him.

Caspian continued to talk about how Miraz may accept a duel and so it was decided that Edmund, a giant and a centaur would travel to the Telmarine army and extend the invitation for the duel. It would be their only hope if Lucy didn't find Aslan.

'I want to go with Ed' Danny suddenly spoke up after all of her silence.

'No!' shouted both Caspian and Peter simultaneously and they both turned to glare at the other.

Danny walked quickly over to Peter and said quietly in his ear 'I think we both know that you have lost all rights to tell me what to do'. With this she turned her back on him. Peter felt the urge to say something to stop her but knew that she was right. He couldn't even command her as King, she wasn't a Narnian. Despite everything, he did hope that Caspian would persuade her not to go.

Danny walked over and stood silently in front of Caspian as he continued to shake his head disbelievingly. 'No. No. No. I can't let you go. What if you get hurt? You would be walking right into the enemies' camp. No, I need you to stay safe, I need you to stay here' he said running his hands up and down her arm without thinking. Luckily everyone had left the chamber by this point except Peter, Edmund, the centaur and the giant. The last three had the decency to avert their eyes and have a conversation on the other side of the room.

'Please Caspian. I'd be safe with Ed, I trust Ed with my life. Besides, I'm really going to be no safer here with the army so close to us. I'm going to be in danger at some point, no matter how hard you try and make me avoid it. I can't do much else around here Caspian, but I can do this. I need at least some purpose here, I feel useless' Danny pleaded to him.

Danny saw the defeat in Caspian's eyes and knew that she had won. She smiled at him and he smiled weakly back and then pulled her into a tight hug. 'Don't you dare get yourself hurt' he whispered to her, then closed his eyes, both to absorb the moment and to block out the image of Peter standing behind them, open mouthed in shock.

Danny stayed close by Ed's side as they began to walk through the tents that were the Telmarines' camp. Admittedly she felt a lot more confident with the centaur and the giant but she still had to pretend to feel completely confident and walk through the camp with her head raised high, despite the stares she felt piercing her.

They were swiftly shown to the tent that now fulfilled the purpose of the Telmarines council chamber. Ed walked forward confidently with the scroll that contained the invitation and read aloud, 'I, Peter, by the gift of Aslan, by election and by conquest, High King of Narnia, Lord of Cair Paravel and Emperor of the Lone Islands, in order to prevent the abominable affusion of blood, do hereby challenge the usurper Miraz to single combat upon the field of battle. The fight shall be to the death, the reward shall be total surrender' and with that rolled up the scroll politely and waited.

'Do tell me Prince Edmund…' Miraz began quietly, intending to be threatening.

'King' Edmund interrupted, correcting him.

'Pardon me?' Miraz replied, the glare he gave Ed clearly showed that he was not used to being interrupted.

'It's King Edmund actually. Just King though, Peter's the High King. I know it's confusing' Ed smirked condescendingly.

'Why would you risk such a proposal when our armies could wipe you out by nightfall?' Miraz continued, attempting to appear unfazed.

'Haven't you already underestimated our numbers? I mean, only a week ago Narnians were extinct' Ed argued back.

'And so you will be again' Miraz gave a little smile at this thought and Danny glared at Miraz.

'Well then you should have little to fear' Ed retorted.

'This is not a question of bravery' laughed Miraz.

'So you're bravely refusing to fight a swordsman half your age?' Ed cleverly replied. He had just left Miraz with no option but to look foolish in front of his council which would undermine his authority, or to accept the challenge.

'I didn't say I refused' Miraz clearly did not like Ed's logic and Danny now smirked.

'You shall have our support your majesty, whatever your decision' one man on the council told his King, which added to Miraz's fury and Danny had to bite her lip to keep herself from laughing.

'Sire, our military advantage alone provides the perfect excuse to avoid..' Sopespian began to advise but was cut off quickly.

'I am not avoiding anything' Miraz shouted at the council.

'I was merely pointing out that my lord is well within his rights to refuse' he attempted to recover from Miraz's outburst.

'His majesty would never refuse. He relishes the chance to show the people the courage of their new King' Glozelle's declaration was the final straw for Miraz. He was backed into a corner and was left with no other option.

'You… you should hope that your brothers sword is sharper than his pen' Miraz stated and then turned on his heel and left. Danny and Ed then left the camp, amazingly unscathed, laughing at Miraz's reaction all the way back to the How.

Danny attempted to find Caspian after her return and once she asked a passing Narnian she was directed to the stables. As she neared the stables she could hear the low rumble of Caspian talking and the higher tones of Susan and Lucy. She neared the doorway and decided to wait until they had finished their conversation, which was seemingly important, until she entered.

'Destrier has always served me well. You are in good hands' Caspian told the girls as he stroked the horses flank, deep in thought.

'Or hooves' Lucy laughed, breaking his train of thought but he laughed along with her.

Caspian then turned to gaze up at Susan, who had now seated herself and Lucy on to the horse.

'Good luck' he said directly at her. Danny watched on confused as to why Caspian appeared unable to take his eyes from her. She felt as if she had swallowed a stone and it was now resting against her heart, making every heartbeat painful.

'Thanks' Susan said back, looking away, uncomfortable under Caspian's stare. Danny couldn't help but think 'good'.

'Look, maybe it is time you have this back' Caspian reached down to his belt and held out Susan's horn. She reached out to touch it but then pushed it back to him.

'Why don't you hold on to it. You may need to call me again' she said smirking. This comment made Caspian's smile widen. Susan then took the reins of Destrier and started into a canter down the tunnel. Danny was surprised to find wetness on her cheeks, she never knew she even cared that much.

The voices of Lucy and Susan trailed back down the tunnel. 'You may need to call me again?' Lucy asked disbelievingly that anything that cheesy had actually come out of Susan's mouth.

'Oh, shut up' was Susans only retort. These comments made Caspian smile and he was seemingly deep in thought again. After the noise of hooves disappeared into the distance he saddled and prepared another horse and then galloped quickly away in pursuit of the queens.

Danny sobbed with abandon once he was gone and she had no reason to try and stay quiet anymore. She had actually believed that he had cared for her and then he had hurt her, just like Peter had. Danny couldn't control her tears now even if she had wanted to.

However, her despair was interrupted by a soft arm around her shoulder. She glanced up and then quickly moved away as she looked up into the eyes of Peter. She wiped her eyes and attempted to look normal but then began to sob again when she realised that there was no point; he had already seen her crying.

'Danny…' Peter trailed off, unsure of where to start. 'I know you saw the nymph the other day, I just… I want to apologise. You are an amazing person and in no way do you deserve for that to happen. You've got to believe how sorry I am' Danny glanced up and she could clearly see how honest he was being by the look in his eyes. She nodded slowly in consent for him to continue.

'I'm not trying to use this as an excuse; I just need you to understand why I did it. It's just that you have been spending so much time with Caspian and I got jealous. The nymph flirted with me and it felt good to have someone care again. I never meant for it to happen. Please forgive me Danny, I don't know what I'd do if I lost you…'

Danny nodded slowly and tried to give Peter a small smile, however in her state of despair, it appeared to be more of a grimace. 'I forgive you Peter, don't get me wrong, I am so angry with you and it will take a while for me to trust you. But I don't want to lose you either, your family is the only one I've got. I'm probably as much to blame. I think I've fallen for Caspian…' Danny had to break off as she began to sob again.

Peter rushed forward and enveloped her in a comforting hug. Peter could tell that there was nothing between them now but friendship…. On her part anyway, it would take a while for Peter to lose these feelings for her. For the moment it just felt so good to have her forgive him.

'I know you care for Caspian. And I saw what happened here as well. I followed you because I came to apologise. But, look, if he can't see how beautiful and what a wonderful person he had right in front of his nose, then he is an idiot and does not deserve you.'

Danny sniffled and let out a choked sort of laugh. She hugged Peter back and felt slightly better, knowing that given time, she and Peter would be back to how they were before they became more than friends. However, she couldn't manage to smile for more than a split second when thoughts of Caspian being in love with Susan made her feel like she wanted to come crashing to her knees and give up the will to live. Peter and Ed would always be there to keep her standing though.


End file.
